a moment for an unsung hero

So something I’ve been thinking about for a couple days is that Murderbot only realizes after first meeting ART that, as a ship, ART doesn’t really have any contextual ability to understand entertainment media. ART tries to watch it and can’t. 

Of course, Murderbot only tried that track because the FIRST bot pilot it negotiated with accepted the media packet without any sign of complaint, but there’s no reason an even less advanced bot pilot whose body is a cargo hauler would be able to enjoy entertainment media any more than ART could without riding on Murderbot’s experience, and it’s not like Murderbot wouldn’t have noticed if it was hanging around them in the feed either (see: ART), so it wasn’t even sneaking a peek while Murderbot binged its own shows. 

Meaning the cargo transport who gave Murderbot its first ride basically took one look at this “free bot” skulking around and bartering/begging for a ride with some sort of weirdass garbage data like it didn’t realize it was worthless, went “Oh, dear,” and then accepted the worthless trash file without a word because it’s not polite to put people on the spot like that, and maybe because it didn’t want to stress Murderbot out even further. 

And then, as mentioned in Artificial Condition, it gave Murderbot access to its comm and feed streams for Murderbot’s own peace of mind, so Murderbot could listen for anyone mentioning it? Like why do that for a free bot apparently just on its way home and only riding along because it doesn’t want to deal with the crowds? Why do that for ANYONE who doesn’t have reason to be paranoid about pursuit? 

Headcanon now that Cargo Transport was FULLY AWARE that Murderbot was a shadyass, traumatized motherfucker lying through its teeth the whole time, possibly even realized it was a SecUnit (it is a cargo transport), and just helped out within Murderbot’s comfort level because it’s a genuinely good person.

Also headcanon that it wasn’t the first time it’d done something like that.