Existence

Existence exists.

Brief:
Newly awakened young woman Zhéxué thinks she knows many things, from the Vatican to virtual reality, yet she doesn't know anything about herself.  Who is she?  How was she created?  Why is she at the centre of everyone's schemes?

Rushed along in an unwitting tour–actual and virtual–of parts of post-cataclysmic Earth, constantly pushed around for days at a time by her so-called allies as much as her enemies, Zhéxué is barely able to stop and think.  At last, she uncovers vital information about her nature, and of existence.  These discoveries inform a desperate plan to save a friend she once thought lost.

Yet if Zhéxué cannot conceive the first axiom, the most fundamental truth, she and her friend will be killed… or worse.

Complete:
When the young woman Zhéxué first spawned, she couldn't identify where she was.  What were all these machines filled with viscous liquid?  How were other people sleeping inside them?  Why were other people fighting?

When Zhéxué first awakened, she didn't understand how she was.  How could she converse now, but not earlier?  How does she suddenly possess a lifetime's worth of knowledge without experience or conception?  Why are some people eager to kill her while others are desperate to keep her alive?

When Zhéxué first perceived, she didn't remember who she was.  What sort of animal is her pet?  Who were her parents?  Where did she live?  What did she do with her life?

All sorts of people are ready to help or hinder Zhéxué–even both.  Religious fundamentalists are hunting her.  A cantankerous old man abducts her first, ostensibly for her own good, though she barely has time to fear his violent tendencies before an unknown military group abduct them.  The two are whisked away to a luxury ocean liner, of all things, forced to live aboard an oasis upon post-apocalyptic Earth.

Not everything aboard the ocean liner is perfect.  Zhéxué's newest incovenient 'companions' and their friends are distrusted or despised by the vast majority of the thousands of other people living aboard.  Despite that, she uses her chance to catch her breath for a day or two, vacillating between exploring and escaping–until she, the old man, and their newest companions are all forced to evacuate for their lives, at the behest of the religious fundamentalist's leader:  an ancient and mysterious figure whom few know and all fear.

Thinking upon her situation, Zhéxué inadvertantly discovers life-changing information about her biology–her very nature–and of existence.  She also realises that her friend, a man she once thought lost, is actually being held in thrall, inside a prison he cannot smell or taste or touch.  If Zhéxué is to rescue him, she must return to hostile territory, administered by the seemingly omnipotent fundamentalist leader.

Inexperienced Zhéxué, alone, must somehow match wits against a god-like techno-tyrant.  Unless she can conceive of the first axiom–the most fundamental, irreducable truth–she will be crushed.

Existence is a whirlwind introduction to an Earth that exists hundreds of years from now, after a late twenty-first century singularity-esque cataclysm.  Existence is also the first novel in the Philosophy of Life series.