Otherworld by Jared C. Wilson

cavalcade of horrific dreams. He sat for a minute, trying to let the drowsiness and the dreams seep out of him. When full consciousness arrived, he put the coffeepot on and sat at the table.
    He sorted through the accumulation of mail and magazines and other papers on the table, separating them into two piles: keep and throw away. In the heap of paraphernalia, he came across “Aliens from This World” by Dr. Samuel Bering.
    The professor’s theory seemed preposterous, something out of The Outer Limits , but then there was the problem of the professor’s pitch-perfect congeniality. Perhaps he was an eccentric, but Bering didn’t seem crazy. Mike hadn’t read the professor’s article. He felt it had nothing important to add to his story. His assignment was simple: UFOs. Throwing in some crazy bit about other dimensions or parallel universes or whatever the professor called them would have been a needless tangent. Had the science of it not had the potential to confuse the average Spotlight reader, it would have made a suitable story on its own.
    He began to read the article, and it did appear as if the professor knew what he was talking about. It was heavy with bits of scientific data and research done by cosmologists and theoretical physicists and other academics who spent their time doing nothing but contemplating the whats and hows of pseudoscientific pursuits like time travel and telekinesis. The professor neglected to cite this research and data with Mike in their talk, but Mike knew he wouldn’t have understood it in the least anyway and that Bering probably knew it. But even from his layman’s perspective, Mike thought the article laid out a fairly convincing case for Bering’s theory. The professor made it sound possible. He made it sound probable .
    From “Aliens from This World” by Dr. Samuel Bering in Science Quest :
    In the early ’80s, Kaluza-Klein theory reemerged with researchers aggravated by the task of unifying gravity with other quantum forces. Under this theory, forces are reconciled with each other because there is much more space with which to work. Expanding to an nth dimension allows the unification of Einstein’s field of gravity with the electromagnetic force and the Yang-Mills “weak and strong” forces. Kaluza-Klein may provide a reason to file away the heaps of papers Einstein left unsolved on his desk when he passed away. It is his holy grail. It may reveal how we may reconcile all forces, known and unknown, and though its full understanding is beyond our present capabilities, it can be manipulated mathematically. In essence, its propositions are extremely ludicrous but can be proven on paper. Kaluza-Klein holds the secrets to higher dimensions and even the unwanted stepchild of theoretical physicists—time travel. Arguably, Kaluza-Klein theory and its revelations contain answers to the proverbial “meaning of life” …
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    Captain Lattimer sat at his desk and dug through the drawers in search of relief. Without notice, Kelly entered and deposited an aspirin bottle in front of him.
    â€œThanks,” he said. “I left mine in my glove compartment.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    He unscrewed the lid and devoured three tablets.
    â€œI guess I should tell you,” she said.
    Graham studied her face. He was in pain and wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what she was on the verge of saying. Her countenance, all scrunched brow and bitten lower lip, only deepened his apprehension. Graham sighed.
    â€œDo I want to hear it?” he asked.
    â€œProbably not.”
    He rubbed his forehead and then responded, “Okay. Shoot.”
    â€œWe got four calls last night reporting sightings of mysterious lights in the sky.”
    He groaned. “You gotta be kiddin’ me,” he said, not really to Kelly so much as to the air, to the invisible spirit of aggravation he had, until this time, only acknowledged