Description: Mensah convinces Murderbot to participate in an updated production of Hamlet. ART helps.

Shakespeare for SecUnits

When I first worked with the PreservationAux Survey Team, Gurathin asked if they could punish me simply by looking at me.

The answer was yes.

So here I was, about to be stared at by hundreds of people at once. Not like walking into a space station where hundreds of people are vaguely looking around, trying not to run into one another.

No, I mean staring at me, and only me. LISTENING to me. Ugh.

I sent into the feed: This is all your fault.

ART responded, I take full credit. This is a growth experience.

I don't want to grow, I said.

ART ignored me. That was your cue. Stop procrastinating.

I'd been watching an episode of Sanctuary Moon and trying not to think about what I was going to do next.

I paused the episode and walked onstage.

127 cycles ago...

It started with ART directing our attention to a newsfeed article about Cho Rhunnar.

See, I told you it's ART's fault.

"Who is Cho Rhunnar?" I asked, not recognizing the name. I was in an entertainment suite with ART's crew, where we had just reached the end of an episode of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. ART had decided that we should each select a sample of media we enjoyed, explain to the group why we chose that particular sample, and then watch them together. It was yet another "growth experience." ART had decided I needed these, and for reasons I'll get into later, I had to participate.

"This is your favorite episode, in your favorite season, of your favorite show," ART said, as if I hadn't already mentioned this before we started watching it. "The human featured in the newsfeed created the show and set the overall story arcs in this season."

Okay. That did sound potentially interesting.

"Don't you watch the season extras?" asked Iris.

"No," I said. I had discovered that extras were mostly boring stuff, like details about filming and costuming and behind-the-scenes pranks that I didn't give a damn about.

"Sometimes they interview the writers," Iris explained.

I created a reminder to filter extras by that criteria in the future. Then ART sent the newsfeed to the display screen so we could all watch it.

Excerpt from Interview with Cho Rhunnar

Media Entertainment interviewer: Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon was such a big hit. Any chance of a revival?

Cho Rhunnar: Not in its original form, but I have something related in mind. The story arc for the most popular season was loosely based on an ancient play — Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. That art form — the theatrical play in front of a live audience — is something I want to try my hand at, and I know Sanctuary Moon fans already have a history of reenacting their favorite scenes of the show. My next project is to write a play featuring the Sanctuary Moon characters. It will allow fans to truly immerse themselves in the story.

Media Entertainment interviewer: A true merging of canon and fandom?

Cho Rhunnar: In a nutshell, yes.

That was a lot. I mean, I was kind of familiar with the concept of fans. I was a fan of Sanctuary Moon. I watched it. I talked about it and convinced others to watch it. I looked for similar serials.

But they were implying something more. Reenacting scenes? Playing the roles yourself?

"SecUnit?" asked Iris. "Are you pleased with the announcement?"

I played back the last minute of conversation that I'd missed. "Maybe. What is 'fandom'?"

ART's crew — all of them associated with a university where they were either instructors or students — were eager to educate me on the concept. Fanfic sounded promising, offering the possibility of more content for serials that I'd enjoyed.

I ran a search while I listened. A large portion of Sanctuary Moon fanfic was porn. Gross. But at least it was tagged as such and I could filter it out. That still left a significant amount of content to explore, and I added it to my entertainment data storage.

ART indicated that it would like to explore this content, too. I agreed we could do this together.

Then I asked my next question. "My favorite season was based on a play I've never heard of. Julius Caesar. Are there recordings of it?"

"There are many," ART informed us. "The original text was lost, but experts have identified the core, common elements. They agree that these are the most accurate versions of the original play." A list of selections appeared on the screen.

We decided to watch one of the versions.

Wow.

I mean, Caesar clearly needed better security. A SecUnit would have drastically changed the outcome of his story.

But I could also see the parallels to season two of Sanctuary Moon. And I liked season two better than the rest. Especially season four, which even I had to admit was full of plot holes.

The fanfic revealed that others felt the same way. Stories based on season two mostly expanded on what had happened. Stories based on season four were often tagged as "fix-its."

Two of ART's crew members considered themselves knowledgeable about fanfic. They provided suggestions on interacting with authors. ART and I started with the simplest form of interaction, which involved sending a reaction emoji to indicate appreciation. Then we moved on to leaving comments, mostly saying in words what we could have expressed with the emoji, but for some reason this was considered a higher level of engagement.

Then we left longer comments, keeping in mind the crew's insistence on being kind — or at least constructive — in these interactions. It helped that they told ART many of the authors were adolescents. ART had a much higher level of patience and tolerance when it came to children.

On seven of the stories, I left the comment, That isn't how SecUnits work.

Five of the authors ignored me. One thanked me and asked for further information. One said they weren't interested in accuracy — their goal was dramatic effect — and suggested I should write my own fic instead of criticizing theirs.

I mentioned it the next time I spoke with Dr. Mensah.

We have a conversation every ten cycles. She calls it an "accountability session."

So, I may have blackmailed her into going to trauma therapy after I saved her life from an assassination attempt. And by "may have" I mean I absolutely blackmailed her.

But she was grateful now that she was receiving regular treatments. The therapist suggested Mensah check in with someone about how the treatments were going. For some inexplicable reason, Mensah had chosen me.

See the comments above about blackmail. Yeah, that probably had something to do with it.

Somehow these accountability sessions also involved asking me about my interactions with ART's crew. I pretended not to notice that Mensah's expression and voice indicated happiness when I mentioned new or increased levels of interactions.

ART definitely noticed. And if you think ART didn't listen in on every accountability session, then you don't know ART. That was where the idea of "growth experiences" came from. And yes, the sharing favorite media event a few cycles earlier had been one of ART's proposed "growth experiences."

Anyway, I mentioned the interview with the Sanctuary Moon creator, watching Julius Caesar, reading fanfic, and the response to my comment about SecUnits.

"Would you like to write your own stories?" Mensah asked.

I thought about it for 2.4 seconds — which felt like at least twenty minutes — when I first read the response from the fic's author. And therefore I immediately said, "No!" to Mensah.

"But you like editing?" Mensah continued. "For instance, finding the issues in an existing story and suggesting improvements."

"Maybe," I said. "If the story is interesting."

"And you found Julius Caesar interesting?"

"Yes," I said.

"Were there things you would change in a modernization of that story?"

I mentioned a few ideas.

Then she changed the subject to her world's annual festival that featured art and live performances. I had attended the most recent festival, and at the time she had mentioned that in her position as a planetary leader, she rarely had the ability to attend many of those performances.

Things were different now. Due to the blackmail. She'd needed to step down from her leadership role in order to make time for the trauma therapy.

Now Mensah mentioned her intent to attend the festival when it next occurred, and she asked if I planned to return for the event.

ART indicated in the feed that our schedule could accommodate attending. I passed that information along.

Mensah looked thoughtful. "SecUnit, have you ever seen Hamlet?"

"What's Hamlet?" I asked.

"It's another play by the author of Julius Caesar. I'd like to hear what you think of it."

In the background, ART was already pulling a list of the most highly regarded performances of Hamlet.

"I'll watch it," I promised.

"I look forward to talking about it in our next session."

Obviously, this inspired ART to plan another "growth experience" involving the full crew. We didn't just watch Hamlet — although we started with that — we staged our own performance.

My objections that I couldn't act were immediately squashed. ART pointed out the times I'd pretended to be an augmented human, or when I'd pretended to be fine with what my clients told me to do.

I understood now why fans of Sanctuary Moon reenacted their favorite scenes. Performing something was... it was more intense than simply watching it.

And in some ways, interacting with humans in a play was easier. I didn't have to worry about what to say or do. The script handled that for me. My biggest challenge was what Iris called "emoting." Yeah, I don't like to have emotions, much less show them.

But Iris had a solution for that, too. She cast me as the main character, and she said being "broody" was a good fit for me.

Whatever.

###

ART did something I'd never bothered to do. It looked into the Preservation festival that we'd agreed to attend.

I thought only I had agreed to attend, but ART assumed it would stay in orbit around the planet for the entire event. It had already mentioned this to the crew, who were now looking forward to it as a vacation. So yeah, we were all attending, and ART felt the need to educate us about the festival.

It turns out the festival coincides with something called a "solstice," which is the longest day of the year on the planet. The event is meant to celebrate transitions. There's the literal transition of days getting shorter. But it's also about transitions in the lives of the participants. Most citizens played a role in planning or executing events during their adolescence, recognizing their transition to adulthood. It was also common for retirees or people experiencing some other type of life change to be heavily involved.

And yes, I did realize that Dr. Mensah stepping away from Preservation's council was exactly the type of transition the festival was meant to acknowledge. So now I was even more determined to be there.

I went into the next "accountability session" thinking I was fully prepared. I could tell Mensah about performing Hamlet with ART's crew and how they wanted to attend the festival, and I wouldn't be taken by surprise if she mentioned getting involved in planning the festival.

You may have noticed: When I'm the most confident in a plan, that's when it's most likely to go to shit.

It all started out like I expected. Mensah expressed pleasure in the things I told her. She announced that she had volunteered to direct a version of Hamlet for the festival. I was actually smug that I had anticipated something like this.

Then she dropped the bombshell. "I'm adapting the script for a contemporary setting, and I'd like to collaborate with you on it."

"What?" was all I managed to say.

"I want to hear your ideas on what should change in the play, and I'll incorporate those into the script."

Well, that didn't sound too scary. Except... In the feed, ART was particularly alert. And pleased. That indicated this wasn't as simple as Mensah made it sound.

ART was right, damn it.

Telling Mensah my initial ideas was easy enough. But it turns out that "collaborate" means reaching agreement with people. Which means compromising. CONSTANTLY. Ugh. I hate compromising. I really should have told Mensah to negotiate a contract with Pin-Lee for my services, first.

ART's crew helped — if you can call it that — by acting out the scenes with the changes Mensah and I proposed. And if Mensah and I disagreed on the changes, the crew members voted on which version they preferred. So apparently they were collaborating with us, too. And most of the time they voted in favor of Mensah's suggestions. Not that I was bitter about it or anything. Not like I expected my own temporary crew members to be loyal to me.

But by the time we arrived to prepare for the festival, we had a completed script that even I had to admit was good.

The main characters were Gertrude — a member of a planetary ruling council — and Hamlet, who was a security consultant to the council. An informant (the ghost in the original play) tells Hamlet that the death of a previous council member was a murder perpetrated by a new council member who had replaced the dead one. However, Hamlet has no evidence of this, and Gertrude trusts the new council member. So Hamlet has to trick the council member into revealing his guilt. And a lot of people die — just like in the play.

I realize now that it was naive of me to assume my part was done when we arrived at Preservation. I thought I'd observe a rehearsal and then attend the play as one of many anonymous audience members.

I shouldn't have been surprised when Dr. Mensah mentioned that she and I would need to speak to the audience about our adaptation before the play actually started. ART made a point of telling me that obviously we would both be publicly recognized for our work, and I should have been prepared for this.

Yeah, thanks for the warning, ART.

I told myself it would be a minute or two at most, and Mensah would do most of the talking. ART helped me prepare what to say, and Mensah practiced with me.

It was still going to be bad. I hated being stared at by even one human, and this would be hundreds.

But it got worse. Much worse.

###

"We have an issue," Mensah announced on the day the play was supposed to be performed. We were gathered for a final rehearsal, and several key actors still hadn't arrived. "Our Gertrude is in the infirmary, and as many of our cast members are either her marital partners or their children, we're missing several key roles."

That was definitely a problem.

"SecUnit, I have an idea for how you can help," she continued.

"How?" I asked, wondering if the infirmary story was a lie so the remaining cast wouldn't be worried. I started gathering my drones in case our missing actors needed to be rescued from something.

"We can take their places, along with Perihelion's crew."

ART's real name is Perihelion. The humans call it that.

"They have the parts memorized, and I can be Gertrude if you take the Hamlet part," Mensah continued, as if this weren't a terrible idea.

It was such a shock that my performance reliability dropped two percent. All I could say was, "Uhhh..."

Fortunately ART and its crew all started talking, and that gave me time to recover.

"SecUnit!" Iris waved her hand in front of my face — she was good about not touching me without permission — and I nodded to acknowledge her. "I have an idea."

It really was a good idea. She suggested I wear my full SecUnit armor at the start. I'd leave the helmet open when interacting with humans, and could close it for the soliloquies. "Closing off from everyone else" is how she described it.

Unfortunately, she also suggested gradually wearing less armor. This she referred to as "being seduced into trusting your clients and letting down your guard," and while I objected to the term "seduced" I could see where she was going.

I don't know if I could have done it, if Dr. Mensah hadn't stepped in as Gertrude. I was used to thinking of Mensah as a client, as someone to protect... as a friend, even. I trusted her. And thinking of Gertrude as Mensah was... like an anchor. I could focus on her instead of the audience.

But now we were at THE BIG MOMENT. I was going to step on stage, without any armor, and directly address the audience for the major "to leak or not to leak" soliloquy — the one where I weigh telling Mensah what I suspect in the hopes that she'll take precautions, versus keeping my suspicions to myself out of the fear that she'll stop listening to me if I tell her something she really doesn't want to hear.

###

Somehow, I got through it. Dr. Mensah had pity on me and said I didn't have to go to the cast party if I really didn't want to.

I went to my planet-side quarters, where I watched the entire second season of Sanctuary Moon.

The Julius Caesar-inspired one. Yeah, maybe that hadn't been my best idea. It kept the concept of plays in my mind.

ART pinged me in the feed. Then it said, I recorded the performance.

I shouldn't have been surprised. I mean, ART had taken the role of the shadowy informant. It was perfect for a scary, disembodied voice. That part alone was worthy of a re-watch now that I wasn't distracted with performing my own part.

Do you want to watch it? ART asked.

Okay, I said. But only if I can pause it whenever I need a break.

ART agreed and began the first act.

At first I paused the play fairly often. I cringed at a few parts, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. If nothing else, the quality of the story itself made it easier to forgive the flaws of amateur actors. I didn't pause the recording at all during the final act. I might not be a great actor, but I'd choreographed the final fight scene, and it was excellent.

Again? ART asked shortly after the recording ended.

I agreed to watch it again.

Then ART said, We should return for the next festival.

You mean, to watch more live plays? I asked.

Do you wish to participate in other ways?

NO! I didn't even have to think about it. Once had been enough.

No, ART agreed. You do not need to.

What did that mean?

What do you mean? I asked.

The festival celebrates transitions. You experienced many changes in the last planetary rotation. It is reasonable to assume the changes you face before the next festival will be lesser in magnitude.

It was tempting to argue. Partly because arguing with ART was a habit, and partly because this whole time I'd viewed the play as honoring Dr. Mensah's transition from a public figure to a private citizen. But ART wasn't wrong. I'd had transitions to commemorate, too.

I wondered if Pin-Lee could do something with that. I'd participated in Preservation's transition festival, honoring my own transition from property to private citizen. Could she use that to make the case for my ultimate autonomy?

Yes, she could, and she did.

And Hamlet — MY Hamlet — joined my entertainment media storage to become one of my most-viewed recordings. It reminded me that I could do things I never could have imagined back when I first hacked my governor module. And maybe some of those things I didn't want to repeat. Like, NEVER AGAIN. But I was capable of more than I'd ever imagined.

And, yeah, when Cho Rhunnar's Return to Sanctuary Moon play was released, I agreed to perform it with ART's crew. But only on ART. No audiences.