Chapter Eight

Murderbot is repaired at the company station and learns that Dr. Mensah has purchased its contract, intending to take it home to Preservation as a free agent. After settling into a hotel suite with Mensah and her team, Murderbot slips away in the middle of the night, steals civilian clothing, and boards a cargo transport ship to leave the Corporation Rim, choosing autonomy over even benevolent ownership.

Murderbot regains consciousness in a repair cubicle at the company station—not the habitat—and discovers its governor module remains nonfunctional. Ratthi arrives with news that Dr. Mensah has permanently purchased Murderbot's contract. At processing, despite expecting security gear, Murderbot receives a PreservationAux survey uniform instead. Pin-Lee, dressed as a sharp solicitor, retrieves Murderbot from processing, evading company representatives who want to purge its memory before the contract transfer, citing a court order. The group travels through the station's public areas, where Murderbot passes unnoticed as an augmented human. Reporters attempt to intercept them at a hotel, but they escape into a suite. Dr. Mensah explains that Murderbot is now a free agent off inventory and won't need armor or a cubicle on Preservation, which has no violence. Murderbot feels conflicted about its new status. Throughout the evening, corporate representatives arrive to discuss the incident, and Ratthi describes Mensah's life on a farm with multiple family members. Late that night, while others sleep, Murderbot steals civilian clothing from the dockworkers' barracks and boards a cargo transport bot, choosing to leave the Corporation Rim independently rather than accept even willing guardianship, unwilling to have anyone dictate what it should want.