Four: Terminate

He didn't want to work, but he needed money, so Sallum set his global status to
let the system know he was available. His first ticket was within the same
building, which was a rare luxury. "Maybe my luck will change," Sallum thought
sardonically.

When he opened and read the ticket, it made him think otherwise. "User account
has run out of VOID Credit. User no longer responding to contact attempts.
Repossess Base Station and terminate connection to dwelling endpoint." Great. A
reposession job.

He took the short walk across his building, and knocked on the door. No answer.
"Oh, come on," he said aloud. This wasn't worth it. He wasn't paid enough for
this.

He hit the open button. The door buzzed a negative response, the touch buttons on
the tiny display disappeared, and a message was displayed: "Hello! Sorry, I can't
come to the door, but I'm in the VOID (ping me)!"

Sallum leaned against the wall next to the dwelling's door and sighed. He
twitched his fingers to manipulate his HUD, sending an aSync message to the main
VOIDNet management system. Once, this message box was monitored by a skilled
support staff of technicians and specialists. Now, nearly all on-the-job
questions from VOIDNet employees could be answered by AI with little or no human
staff required. His message read, "Cannot gain access to user's dwelling chamber
to reposess VOIDNet Base Station. User is connected to VOIDNet."

In a matter of seconds, he heard the dwelling's electronic locks disengage just
before his HUD pinged with the management system's response: "Unlock signal has
been sent to dwelling indicated." Sallum held his breath and mashed "OPEN".

On the bed was an apparently living person, a middle-aged woman, eyes closed,
Cranial Implants blinking with activity. There was no sign of damage or struggle,
just an ordinary person, connected to the VOID, not paying her bills. Sallum
sighed with relief. This, he could handle. He walked over to the Base Station and
tapped it twice to activate the standard alert in the user's VOIDNet HUD to let
them know someone is nearby and has requested they disconnect. He waited, but
there was no sign of a response. No twitching fingers, no REM-style eye
movements, none of the typical signs that the user in VOID consciousness was
actively using their interface.

Sallum, unsure of what to do next, double tapped the Base Station again. When
that did nothing, he pulled up his HUD and was about to ping for advisement when,
as if anticipating, the management system messaged him preemptively. It was short
and direct:

"Terminate Implant connection and reposess Base Station."

Forcibly disconnecting another user's Implant from a Base Station when they are
in VOID consciousness usually caused at least some brain damage.

Sallum sent back, "User not responding to alerts or making any indication that
they intend to exit VOID consciousness. Please advise."

The management system's AI did not hesitate. The response was near-instant.
"User's consciousness has been subsumed fully into the VOID; User no longer
requires Cranial Implant or physical body to live. Terminate Implant connection
and reposess Base Station."

Sallum read the message several times, making sure there was no alternate way
those words could be understood. Was this someone's idea of a joke? He responded.
"That course of action could kill the user."

Again the response was instant. "User's consciousness has been subsumed fully
into the VOID; User no longer requires Cranial Implant or physical body to live.
Terminate Implant connection and reposess Base Station."

Sallum frowned and pulled up his own HUD to search for the user's VOID name and
ping her directly. Searching based upon his current location, and using his
enhanced capabilities as a technician, he pulled up the connection information
for the dwelling in which he now stood, found the Base Station device, and his
HUD showed him the results: "1 Implant chipset connected. 0 users present. Base
Station status: NORMAL".

One Implant, but no users present? The Implant was connected directly to the
brain neurons of the user. How could a user's Implant be connected without the
user's mind being present? This had to be an error of some kind.

The system pinged him, anticipating his thoughts again: "Terminating the 
Implant's connection will not kill the user because the user is no longer
present in their physical body. This means the Implant is no longer connected to
the user, and is no longer required. Terminate Implant connection and reposess
Base Sation."

Sallum looked at the thin, gaunt woman who lay nearby and shook his head. "Fuck
this." He left the dwelling.