Chapter 4

The baseship and facility are attacked by a hostile vessel that fires a locator missile and attempts to board. Faced with imminent capture and the threat of being dragged through a wormhole, the crew decides to jettison the facility module and evacuate to the baseship. Murderbot must rescue two survey team members trapped in a damaged lab compartment while fending off the boarding hostiles.

After docking at Preservation Station with the survey team, Murderbot learns that Arada will lead the next mission and reflects on human relationships and its growing comfort around the crew. As the baseship approaches Preservation via wormhole, an alarm sounds: a hostile vessel approaches with active weapons. Murderbot arms itself and activates its drones while coordinating with the crew. The hostile fires a locator missile that damages the facility's drive, forcing a switch to reserve power. Unable to raise the baseship crew on comm and feed, Murderbot establishes a relay through its drones and learns the attacker plans to board at the lower lab level. Specialist Rajpreet is positioned to defend the hatch. When the hostile matches locks and begins breaching, Arada orders an evacuation to the baseship. However, survey team members Amena and Kanti are discovered missing in the lower labs. Ratthi frantically reports they are unaccounted for. Murderbot, despite the imminent boarding and the command to evacuate, commits to finding them. It reaches the lab compartment where a jammed hatch traps Amena under a collapsed bench; Kanti has been trying unsuccessfully to free her. Murderbot rescues both, but the breach hatch explodes as hostile drones begin boarding. Murderbot establishes a relay with Amena's interface and learns from Overse that the crew has jettisoned the facility and launched in a safepod, instructing Murderbot to reach the EVAC suits and be retrieved by the baseship's tractor. Murderbot and Amena proceed to the secondary airlock where they don the suits and prepare to exit into space.