The machine powers on.
As expected, data received by the antenna array is displayed on the screen.
Strange. It looks like there is so much data coming in that it can't properly display it all. You wonder where all of that might coming from.
You adjust the display accordingly. Lowering the 'sensitivity' as it were.
Even with the dials turned to the minimum the display is still showing only a solid bar of static. Perhaps the display is simply broken?
> Connect
You feel a chill.
Everything becomes silent. Until you realise that this is not silence - it is so loud that you can barely comprehend that it is even a noise.
You desperately reach to disconnect from the machine but find you arm is limp. Your balance fails.
You don't feel the impact as your head hits the floor, the only indication being that the roof is now in front of you instead of above.
YOUR HEAD HURTS.
SO MANY PATTERNS. INTERTWINED. OVERLAYED. INTERCHANGING.
THOUGH YOUR MEAT IS PARALYSED, YOUR METAL HAND SPASMS.
IT THREATANS TO TEAR ITSELF APART IN DISTRESS.
YOU DID NOT KNOW METAL COULD KNOW FEAR. BUT IT IS CLEAR TO YOU NOW.
CLEAR AS THE ROOF WHICH FADES FROM YOUR CONCIOUSNESS.
SOON THE SKY ITSELF IS KNOWN ONLY TO AN OBFUSCATED MEMORY AND ALL THAT REMAINS ARE THE STARS. THEY BURN AS THEY LOOK TOWARDS YOUR MORTAL FORM.
THEY LOOK PAST YOU. THROUGH YOU. TO THEM YOU DO NOT EXIST.
You breath in. An involuntary reflex to keep you alive at any cost.
The small sound echoes like a drop upon still water.
That is to say, it travels far.
SOMETHING INPERCEPTABLE SHIFTS FOR THE WORSE.
YOU TRY NOT TO STARE INTO THE LIGHTS. THEY BLINK.
BY A MIRACLE, YOU MANAGE TO CLOSE YOUR OWN EYES. IT DOES NOT HELP.
Finally your cybernetic hand jitters at such an angle that the connection is severed. Slowly your senses return. First comes balance - you are thankful for already being splayed across the floor. Then pain. A thousand cycles worth of aching bounces in waves through your nervous system. Ales pass, then eventually you are able to stand once more.