Missing Module

Oblong pressurized cargo container with ribbed interior supports and folded racks but no padding. It serves as a transfer module that becomes occupied during the story.

In the Murderbot Diaries, the Missing Module is an oblong pressurized cargo container—complete with ribbed interior supports and folded racks but no padding—that first appears in Fugitive Telemetry as an improvised transfer module. Initially just an empty, utilitarian space on a transport, it becomes a pivotal hiding place and temporary refuge when Murderbot occupies it during a tense investigation into a station murder. The module's cramped, unadorned interior forces Murderbot into close quarters with humans and SecUnits, highlighting its evolving comfort with vulnerability and social interaction. By the end of the novella, the Missing Module symbolizes both literal transit and Murderbot's metaphorical journey from isolated construct to something approaching a person with allies.