The most honourable thing a Free Man can do in his lifetime is to voluntarily undergo the rigorous training and replace a drone at the instant of his liberation, which is as soon as possible after the Drone becomes conscious (through the thought-seeds planted by Charles and those like him) cries out for liberation, provided that there is a surrogate in place who is familiar with the particulars of the Drone's duties. If not, the Drone either falls back into his slumber while waiting, or is terminated by the Manager-gods who percieve the Drone to have been contaminated by demons from hell.

In the New Ancient Land the taking on of the role of VSD (Volunteer Surrogate Drone) earns a Free Man the title of Saint. Lincoln will never risk the loss of a free man, though, and so they are first tested extensively to ensure that they will not succumb to the trance... but they are trained to perform all of the same multi-tasking processes as a drone and, in particular, that drone which is approaching readiness to be trasferred from the Machine to the Free or Black Web, and placed in the care of Lincoln and the Free Nobles.

At the instant of the transfer, the VSD takes over from the subways underground, or sometimes even from Venus, and the drone begins his deprogramming process. Once the drone is ready, his body is then rescued by a team of rebels at great risk. The moment the drone's body is disconnected, the surrogate drone disconnects, so that the Manager-gods and their superiors to this day do not understand that these drones actually survive, since they could not be so abruptly disconnected bodily without first undergoing extensive de-programming which may take years - years which the VSD-Saint spends inside the machine without a Black Egg.

These are the heros... and while Charles is numbered among them, this is not so amazing as when the full-humans take on the role of surrogate, as it is much more difficult for them, and they are left afterward with some mental/emotional dammage and if they succumb to the trace they must undergo the same deprogramming process as the drones in order to remember their lives before thier VSD sacrifice.

When a rebel is arrested, they are plugged in physcially to the company or one of the companies run by the Red Bird which arrested them, they are plugged in and unless they have undergone VSD training they will always fall into the trance, and VSD training is only offered to those who will become VSD-Saints, dead or alive.