Greetings Stranger! My humble apologies for the confusion and disorientation. There is no excuse for teleporting you here, taking you away from the exalted position you must surely hold in your home world. But I hope you will forgive us once you understand the gravity of our situation.
You see, my race has unlocked the secret of trans-dimensional gateways, which have been used for aeons to explore the furthest reaches of time and space. But tragedy has struck - small rifts in the space-time continuum have collapsed our gateway network, cutting off uncountable worlds from the supplies and trade they so desperately need.
Our scientists have been working feverishly to repair the gateways, but have achieved only limited success. They have managed to create the sensor grid you see behind me, which should have allowed us to locate and repair these rifts. But its operation has proved... well... "problematic". It appears direct contact with a rift causes the gateway to explode into nothingness, taking with it the countless societies on the other side. Our one attempt at using the sensor grid has exacted a price we can ill afford to pay twice!
And this is where you come in - our agents have identified you as possessing a unique combination of mental, physical, and psychic dexterity, the like of which we have never seen in any other dimension. Our hope is that with these abilities you will be able succefully control our sensor, and save us from the complete collapse that otherwise awaits us.
I beg of you, please help us to reestablish contact with our lost worlds!
Sensor operation is simple: Click on any square in the grid to see how many rifts are in the squares immediately next to it. Squares safely out of range of a rift will disappear to reveal the world on the other side of the gate. Squares that are next to a rift will show you the number of rifts that they border.
Here's the important part! If you click on a rift, the gate will collapse and you will have to start over. You can safely mark the location of a space-time rift by pressing [SHIFT] while clicking on a square. But whatever you do, don't click on a rift without pressing the [SHIFT] key!
One last thing: When you click a sqaure that appears to have all the rifts next to it safely marked, the grid will automatically move to the neighboring squares. This should save you a lot of time and effort, but make sure you've correctly marked the rifts. Otherwise the grid will move to the incorrectly marked square with a rift, and the gate will collapse.
That's all there is to it. Once you've marked all the rifts, the auto-repair sequence will activate, and take you through the gate onto the next system that needs your help. onto the next system. It should be easy going at first, but as you progress through the gates it'll gate harder and harder.
Good Luck!
Well done! I knew our confidence in you was well placed. Unfortunately the longer we delay, the more rifts develop.
That is most tragic! You have just isolated that system for all eternity. Perhaps you are not as adept as our scouts first reported. Unfortunately, we have yet to find anyone more qualified so we have no choice but to allow you to try again.
Good Luck!