"It was starting to occur to me that Dr. Mensah might actually be an intrepid galactic explorer, even if she didn’t look like the ones on the entertainment feed." (All Systems Red)
Dr. Ayda Mensah is the planetary leader of Preservation Alliance, a Freehold polity outside the Corporation Rim. The laws in the Preservation Alliance require elected officials to continue their normal work during their term of office, so Mensah is participating in the planetary survey that contracts Murderbot. She is Murderbot's favorite human.
Biography[]
Dr. Mensah lives on a farm outside the capital city, with two marital partners (Farai and Tano), her sister and brother and their three marital partners (including Thiago), and “a bunch of relatives and kids” (according to Ratthi in All Systems Red). Amena is her oldest child. Her time is split between her home on the planet and her quarters on Preservation Station, where she stays while serving as planetary leader.
First appearing in All Systems Red, Mensah is one of the members of the PreservationAux survey and acts as the team leader. After Murderbot saves Bharadwaj and Volescu from an unexpected attack from a giant local fauna, she and the team investigate the attack's cause. When Murderbot is ambushed by unexpected SecUnits as they sweep the DeltFall survey habitat, Mensah takes out its attackers with a mining drill and hauls it to safety.
Murderbot's hacked governor module is exposed by Gurathin, and Mensah keeps the team together, serving as a bridge between it and the others. When it becomes clear that they're being hunted by GrayCris and they're forced to run, Mensah teams up with Murderbot to distract GrayCris while the others trigger the enemy's emergency beacon. This signals to the Company that something is wrong, and leads to their rescue.
They're taken to Port FreeCommerce to sort through the fallout from this catastrophe, and Mensah purchases Murderbot before it can be wiped and settled back into inventory. Murderbot does not stay, leaving while the others are asleep, and Mensah runs damage control.
After Mensah attends a meeting with DeltFall representatives, she is kidnapped by GrayCris and taken to TranRollinHyfa in retaliation for Murderbot's actions on Milu, of which she was unaware. Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Gurathin follow, and they brace themselves to try to pay her ransom with insufficient funds. Murderbot's reappearance forestalls this, and they perform a hectic rescue instead. Murderbot manages to get Mensah to safety at the expense of its own, and instead of fleeing, she rescues Murderbot from Palisade's Combat Secunit with the other PreservationAux members, then talks Murderbot down from trying to single-handedly take on a Company gunship.
They all return to the Preservation Alliance. Mensah, shaken by her experiences, is slow to adjust, and has even more difficulty when GrayCris sends assassins after her. Murderbot intercepts them, but Mensah continues to feel unsafe in the aftermath of the abduction and latest assassination attempt. Bharadwaj, Murderbot, and others recommend trauma treatments, but she declines at first, hesitant to discuss her experiences even with her closest friends. (Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory) Instead she focuses on helping Murderbot settle on Preservation, and on the challenges of leading the planet in the wake of recent events. She finally agrees to therapy after Murderbot threatens to tell her extended relatives about the latest traumatic event (or possibly simply details of how her trauma has affected her, both of which she has kept private), and with the stipulation that Murderbot accept Arada's offer of a security post on her upcoming survey.
When Murderbot and the remote PreservationAux survey team are kidnapped by ART, Mensah is left behind until ART's message buoy summons help at the end of Network Effect. Her response is immediate, and Mensah is part of the envoy sent to retrieve the team. Murderbot speaks with Mensah first on her arrival, and they exchange code phrases that jumpstart the situation's resolution.
Personality[]
Dr. Mensah is highly capable, quick to make decisions, and incredibly calm in stressful situations. Her sense of humor is similar to Murderbot's. She is exceptionally smart, which Murderbot remarks upon often.
Physical Appearance[]
An image of actor Viola Davis in Widows.
She had dark brown skin and lighter brown hair, cut very short, and I’m guessing she wasn’t young or she wouldn’t be in charge. (All Systems Red, Chapter 1)
After the survey, Murderbot notes that she looks different in her normal clothes, which are described as "business clothes like Pin-Lee's." When Murderbot rescues her in Exit Strategy, she is wearing a long caftan over pants, rumpled and creased from her time as a captive. During the assassination attempt described in Network Effect, she is wearing pants and a tunic. The PreservationAux survey team had a standard uniform, which was grey.
Martha Wells has said that her first choice to play Dr. Mensah would be Viola Davis. [1]
Official Art[]
The Murderbot Diaries has an illustration of a moment in Exit Strategy where Murderbot helps Mensah escape from captivity. Two of the most relevant quotes to this picture are, "I could see via infrared and used my scan to create a physical map. Mensah couldn’t see at all. She grabbed my jacket and shifted behind me, letting me pull her forward.", and "We hit two changes in gravity, one gradual, and one not so gradual, when the wall to the right abruptly became the floor."[2]
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ Exclusive Interview: “All Systems Red” Author Martha Wells , Paul Semel, PaulSemel.com, https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-systems-red-author-martha-wells/
- ↑ "We stepped out into a low-ceilinged space, and once the pod shut behind us it was completely dark. I could see via infrared and used my scan to create a physical map. Mensah couldn’t see at all. She grabbed my jacket and shifted behind me, letting me pull her forward. The air circulation and quality wasn’t great but at least there was air. I navigated a path through currently offline maintenance and hauler bots over to an open ramp that led down. We hit two changes in gravity, one gradual, and one not so gradual, when the wall to the right abruptly became the floor." Chapter 5, Exit Strategy.
- ↑ All Systems Red, page 84.