Chapter 8

Murderbot and the group commandeer a tourist flyer to escape the hydroponics zone through a dangerous air corridor, only to be attacked mid-flight by pirates posing as a rescue vessel. Murderbot incapacitates the two attackers who board their aircraft, then prepares to confront the hostile crew above.

To reach the tourist attraction, the group uses climbing bubble vehicles through the hydroponics zone toward the inner ring, with Murderbot erasing security footage of their passage. They board a small four-seat tourist flyer at a closed attraction, which Murderbot disables tracers and deterrents on. As they ascend through the zone border into the torus air corridor—a large octagonal tube—they spot the mined-to-extinction central planet, a dead world stripped of all resources. Farai pilots them carefully along a navigational beacon path for slower vehicles. After 72 minutes of flight, threat assessment detects a larger private aircraft that has deliberately left its beacon and is matching their speed. The hostile vessel makes a false distress-call hail, then uses a cargo lifting field to immobilize their flyer and clamps an operator's pod to their hull. When the pod breaches their hatch, two humans attempt to board with weapons. Murderbot reveals itself, incapacitates both attackers—crushing one's hand and breaking bones, punching the other—and secures them to the pod using restraints found in their pockets. Murderbot deduces the attackers are likely wealthy humans committing robbery for entertainment rather than survival, and notes their expensive clothing and equipment. After reassuring Sofi and Farai, Murderbot seals the interior hatch and prepares to deal with the hostile crew above—approximately five crew members still controlling the cargo lifting field from the aircraft.