My risk-assessment module predicts a 53 percent chance of a human-on-human massacre before the end of the contract.
Compulsory is a short story released in the January 2019 issue of WIRED as a part of the collection 'The Future of Work'[1]. This collection features short science fiction stories about a "much more nuanced--much more human" take on robots, technology, and labor in the future. The story was originally posted online through Wire magazine on December 17th, 2018.
Synopsis[]
"Compulsory" takes place some time after Murderbot hacks its governor module and before All Systems Red, in an unnamed mine run by "cheap, venal bastards." In the short story, Murderbot is watching an episode of Sanctuary Moon in which a character seems likely to be killed off when an accident occurs to a miner named Sekai, who is bumped off a platform by a fellow miner into a shaft. HubSystem orders Murderbot to stay in position, as its job is to prevent worker theft, violence against management, and workers harming each other in productivity-diminishing ways. Murderbot notes that this will result in the SafetyResponder arriving too late to save Sekai from burning to death, and decides to save her on its own initiative. Sekai, despite having expressed being creeped out by SecUnits earlier, thanks it for saving her.
The short story ends with Murderbot returning to its paused serial, hopeful that someone will save the Sanctuary Moon character as well.
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