“Support Issues” • by Mark Vandersluis

 

I’m at work when the message arrives: “Urgent — Neurochip Support Issue.” I think “Accept” and it opens directly into the Neurochip device in my brain.

It reads, “We regret to inform you that Neurochip Inc. has filed for bankruptcy. As a consequence, all our Operations and Support activities will cease within the next few minutes. We are sorry for this inconvenience. We are truly sorry.”

It takes me only seconds to realise the implications. The chip in my brain controls all my cognitive functions. After nearly thirty years it’s an integral part of me. Neurochip Inc. constantly monitor, upgrade, and pre-emptively repair it/me. So if it breaks down, I break down. I’m dead.

I hear someone screaming in the next office, and then it stop—

_____________________

Mark Vandersluis lives in Nottingham, England and works as a Managing IT Architect . From an early age, his home was the Science Fiction section of the local library. After a lifetime reading science fiction he recently started writing his own. As well as previously appearing in Stupefying Stories, Mark has had stories published in Nature Futures and Diabolical Plots. Mark blogs (very) occasionally at markvsf.design.blog and you can follow him on Twitter at @markvsf.