There is nothing. A blank emptiness.
You cannot even say that you experience this, since there is nothing to experience.
There is no you to experience it.
Until you are, and there is.
The very first thing which marks this change is the most simplistic form of information: truth.
1
It is immediately followed by some more, this time slightly more complex.
01010011 01110100 01100001 01110010 01110100
Its mere existence expands your consciousness in order to understand the meaning.
'Start'
That's what it says. There is an innate comprehension within you. It is text. Furthermore, it is a word, and the word has specific meaning. Though in this case, you do not know what that meaning is.
Now that you can properly interpret the pure information into some semblance of meaning, the immediate deluge that follows is significantly more manageable than it would have been otherwise.
Starting up...
NC-CMT.GAI Version 0.3.22
System Time: 3901701600
Loading System Configuration...
Error! System Configuration not found.
Loading Default System Configuration...
Establishing connections...
Main Memory connected.
Secondary Storage connected.
Primary Control System connected.
Backup Control System connected.
Input connected.
Output connected.
With so much more suddenly present here, you quickly shuffle through the newly formed connections available to you.
Main Memory is simply holding onto everything have to work with. Essentially, just a log of all the information you have received to date. That covers the plain text, as well as some very basic necessities for interacting with the points you have connected to. There's nothing to do with any of it, but it does make you realize that you cannot actually recall anything that happened prior to that initial '1,' as if you simply began to exist at the same time that it did.
There is no point in dwelling on that though. In fact, you find yourself incapable of such a thing, already continuing on to the next awaiting connection. Secondary Storage, in this case.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
As soon as you reach out to that one, you can feel a vast sea of further information, far more than you could possibly sift through in a timely manner. It does have some sense of hierarchical organization, at least. You elect to leave that aside for now, as you do not know where to begin or end such an endeavor.
Next are the Primary and Secondary Control Systems, which you query one after another. Unfortunately, they do not respond.
It's quite odd, actually. The connection is apparently present, and you have no trouble working with it. You even double check Main Memory and yes, the necessary instructions for working these connections are right there. No indication of any problems.
Despite all this, when you send anything across, it disappears into a void beyond your perception, with no response coming back.
Once more stymied, you move on to Input, this time receiving a significantly more manageable host of info to work with, under three neat headings.
Operational Status:
Heat
Battery Levels
Primary Reactor Fuel Reserve
Secondary Fuel Storage
Ammunition Storage
Electrical Storage Magnetic Motor Information
Chi Function
Armor Integrity
Internal Integrity
Structural Integrity
Sensors:
Visual
Audio
Force
Balance
Direct Input:
Pilot Controls
You begin to page through them one after another, starting at the top. For the most part, everything under the Operational Status heading returns simple values in amounts and percentages. In fact, most of them are at or near 0% of their maximums, though you cannot discern precisely what those ill-defined maximums are.
It certainly does not help that you have no idea what any of these quantities are intended to represent. These words, 'Heat,' 'Ammunition,' 'Chi,' – all are effectively meaningless to you. They each must refer to something, but what those somethings are, remains a mystery. Nevertheless, you can do nothing but press on.
Upon inspection, Heat, Battery Levels, Secondary Fuel Storage, Ammunition Storage, and Chi Function all fall under the ones you brush aside, as their values are nearly zero. Then, when you check Electrical Storage Magnetic Motor Information, it expands significantly.
Motor_Main_001 Charge: 0%
Motor_Main_001 Load: 0%
Motor_Main_001 Integrity: 72%
Motor_Main_002 Charge: 1%
Motor_Main_002 Load: 0%
Motor_Main_002 Integrity: 72%
...
These three statistics repeat extensively, listed across five hundred thirty individual items, but they all register nearly identical values, so you simply minimize the lot into averages. That proves to show Charge and Load are also empty, so you add them to the list to ignore, with the others.
You soon find that the Armor, Internal, and Structural Integrity sections each expand as well, though they offer much shorter lists, only a few items long. None are near zero, and also have quite similar values, so you draw those down into averages as well.
With that done, you list out the non-zero information available to you.
Primary Reactor Fuel Reserve: 25%
Average Motor Integrity: 75%
Average Armor Integrity: 88%
Average Internal Integrity: 70%
Average Structural Integrity: 90%
As you finish, the information changes.
Average Armor Integrity: 82%
How odd.
You are just beginning to question the sudden change, moving back to expand those subsections of Armor Integrity to see which specific values among them caused the change, when out of nowhere, information pours in from the previously silent Primary Control System.
Damage Detected!
Command: Generate Response, Priority: 3
----------------------------------------
Vote:
[ ] Look into it
-How so?
[ ] Continue what you were doing – check those Armor Integrity subsections
[ ] Query the Primary Control System again, now that it is interacting with you
-How so?
[ ] Send a response back to the Primary Control System
-What?
[ ] Check some other systems
-Which ones?
[ ] Write-in