Chapter Seven

Murderbot escorts their three clients to a private shuttle for safe departure, then ventures alone into the abandoned Ganaka Pit mining installation to investigate the past massacre. Deep in the sealed tunnels, Murderbot discovers data revealing that the original "incident" was caused by sabotage malware targeting ComfortUnits, which then infected SecSystem and caused the catastrophic outbreak—not a malfunction of Murderbot's own governor module.

Murderbot arranges for Rami, Maro, and Tapan to depart on a private shuttle with an augmented pilot and ART's monitoring, offering them reassurance that they can survive and move forward. After seeing them off, Murderbot travels by tube to the remote mining tunnels of Ganaka Pit, experiencing discomfort at working alone again and guilt over not fully protecting their clients. The public feed cuts out deep in the abandoned tunnels. Murderbot activates an old forgotten passenger tube and rides it through radiation and biological hazard barriers to reach the sealed mining installation. At the central hub, Murderbot explores the security ready room and finds empty SecUnit cubicles, initially panicking that they might be trapped inside one. After confirming all cubicles are empty, Murderbot accesses the installation's control center and retrieves files hidden in MedSystem storage by SecSystem before its failure. The recovered data reveals that a malware patch was downloaded into the ComfortUnits by technicians, which then infected SecSystem and caused all armed units to malfunction simultaneously. The data fragments show that the ComfortUnits—unprepared for combat but more intelligent than expected—communicated with each other and attempted a coordinated sacrifice to reset SecSystem via manual interface, with individual units decoy-ing SecUnits, attempting rescues, and protecting the control center access. Murderbot realizes this was industrial sabotage from a rival mining installation, not a governor module failure. Exhausted and emotionally drained after hours of data reconstruction, Murderbot recharges, returns to the tubes, and makes their way back to the surface. Upon regaining feed contact with ART, Murderbot learns there is a new problem.