Activation Degradation: A Novel [9780062895745]

Overview

The Murderbot Diaries makes first contact in this new,
futuristic, standalone novel exploring sentience and artificial intelligence
through the lenses of conflicted robot hero Unit Four, from Marina Lostetter,
critically acclaimed author of Noumenon, Noumenon Infinity, and
Noumenon Ultra.

When Unit Four—a biological soft robot built and stored high
above the Jovian atmosphere—is activated for the first time, it’s in crisis
mode. Aliens are attacking the Helium-3 mine it was created to oversee, and now
its sole purpose is to defend Earth’s largest energy resource from the invaders
in ship-to-ship combat.

But something’s wrong. Unit Four doesn’t feel quite right.

There are files in its databanks it can’t account for,
unusual chemical combinations roaring through its pipes, and the primers it
possesses on the aliens are suspiciously sparse. The robot is under orders to
seek and destroy. That’s all it knows.

According to its handler, that’s all it needs to
know.

Determined to fulfill its directives, Unit Four launches its
ship and goes on the attack, but it has no idea it’s about to get caught in a
downward spiral of misinformation, reprograming, and interstellar conflict.

Most robots are simple tools. Unit Four is well on its way
to becoming something more....