of it and departed. If only I could have known the forces that would be unleashed I would have denied him all access to that cursed book, taken it back from whence it came and hidden it far away from sight.
Academic duties took up much of my time for the next few weeks and I had relatively little time to wonder as to what progress Derek was making until he phoned my one evening in an evident state of excitement.
"I have done it," he burst out, "it works, just as I suspected! I have travelled through the higher dimensions to new worlds."
I found his news stupefying. I had not for one moment considered that he would make any progress with his theory and had been anticipating the return of the book with perhaps a rather shame-faced expression of failure.
"You must come over here this weekend," he insisted, I can explain it all then, give you a demonstration."
Naturally I accepted. It was with a growing sense of wonder that I considered what he was claiming. Perhaps it would now be possible to actually demonstrate that the occult was not just some mumbo-jumbo but was actually based on a scientifically proven basis. It was thus in somewhat eager anticipation that I waited the few days until Friday and set off that evening for his cottage. I drove down the rather bumpy track which lead past some outlying farms and eventually pulled up in the lane outside his front gate. Derek must have heard me, for he opened the front door before I could knock and welcomed me in with a beaming face and ushered my through into his living room. A welcome wood fire flamed busily in a large stone fireplace and a table was set out for two places. Eager as I was to hear of his experiences, he first insisted that we should eat and so we sat down to an enjoyable meal. As we ate Derek began to recount the events of the past few weeks.
"As you know," he began, "there are in fact eleven dimension which, together with time, make up reality. With our poor senses we can only grasp the three dimensions of space and experience the time dimension. If only we could perceive the higher dimensions we could move ourselves outside our commonplace world. We can write down the equations which define these dimensions but it is of no practical use, we cannot manipulate them. Those phrases which at first appearance seem so weird are the very means by which this can be done. As I suggested, the groups of letters represent mathematical operations of a highly complex nature. For instance combinations such as nfg and ngl denote matrices of tensors, vug and other groups of letters are the vectors directing their application. An apostrophe moderates their syntax, pointing to which ever of the higher dimensions is to be employed. The whole point of the chants is that it enables anyone with a grasp of the mathematics employed to visualise the very dimensions themselves. It works," he insisted, thumping the table with such force as to rattle the plates. "It really does work. Believe me, I have stood on the dusty surface of Mars in the orange pink of the distant setting sun, on the scorching hell of Venus peering through the murk of the sulphuric acid rain and on freezing cold Titan on the shores of a methane lake watching the eruption of a distant volcano spewing out lava consisting of ammonia and water."
I threw up my hands. "This cannot be," I said. "You could not possibly survive in such conditions."
"No, of course not," he laughed. "Not if I was there in my earthly body. You must understand that this is purely a mental experience. The movement through the dimensions is of the intelligence alone."
I was bewildered. I was still unsure as to whether or not this was some elaborate hoax or whether Derek was becoming unhinged.
"I see you still have doubts," he said. "Very well, I shall demonstrate the technique and you will be able to see for yourself. "I must warn you however that there is some risk involved. Initially I was content to explore our solar system, but naturally I became curious as to how far I could travel. I have found another race of intelligent beings on a planet in a star system much further down the spiral arm of our galaxy." His face darkened. "They were not pleased that I had made contact. In fact no sooner had I arrived than they surrounded me with some form of force barrier. It was explained that they too had discovered the ability to project themselves across space but had suffered terrible consequences which had nearly destroyed them. They told me that living in the interdimensional spaces there existed other intelligences, malign, vicious beings, always seeking a means to gain entry into the physical worlds. Travellers through the dimensions, such as me, ran a terrible risk of opening a door for them through which they could pass into the lower realms. Despite my pleas to stay and learn from them they ejected me and warned me never to return and to give up my experiments."
"Surely you cannot intend to continue with this," I queried. "What you are doing is wrong."
Derek smiled and shrugged. "I think they exaggerated," he replied. "So far I have experienced no such phenomena, and if I do it is an easy matter to return here and shut down the dimensional portal. Come on, I will take you on just a short journey and you will see for yourself what a fantastic achievement it is." So saying he tugged me by the arm into his study. In the centre of the room stood a lectern on which I recognised the Necronomicon. On one of the walls he had attached a large white board which was covered in complex mathematical formulae.
"This is it," Derek said, waving his hand towards the board. "I have deciphered the chants and translated them into the equations which you can see there. Reciting the phrases while studying the board enables me to visualise the mathematics underlying the dimensional structures and thus manipulate them in a way which allows me access."
I felt a great reluctance to continue, but my sense of scientific curiosity overcame my initial fears, for as Derek said, we stood on the brink of an amazing discovery which would revolutionise cosmology and permit the exploration of the stars.
I stood close beside him and opening the book he began to recite in a low, clear voice. As he did so the formulae on the board seemed to take on a strange haziness, to slip in and out of focus. Between the board and the lectern a weird shimmer appeared, gathering substance until it coalesced into a grey curtain, shot through with bizarre streaks of colour of an uncertain hue.
"Now," Derek said, and taking my arm he urged me forward into the swirling cloud. My first impression was of a strange feeling of disorientation and disembodiment. I could not readily comprehend my surroundings. The writers of Science Fiction novels describe passage through inventions such as wormholes and warp space as being featureless, or swirling greyness. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was like being in an insubstantial jungle of three dimensional fractal patterns in which the senses were mutated. Shapes were associated with taste, form with odour, motion with sound. I experienced the metallic taste of a purple cuboid, its edges inclined at bizarre angles. I saw the curvature of parallel lines meeting at an infinity which was impossibly close. Clusters of translucent spheres shedding bright bursts of sparkling, iridescent noise hurtled past. Close beside me I sensed Derek as an elongated greenness, dilating and contracting, guiding me through the chaos. Suddenly there was a wrench and I found myself gazing across a dusty, rock strewn landscape, ringed by sharp mountain peaks, under the glare of a sunlight never encountered on Earth. Indeed the enhanced curvature of the far horizon visibly demonstrated that it was a world of rather smaller size than our own planet. It was then that I saw close by on the greyish yellow plain to my right the skeletal remains of a space vehicle and nearby the American Stars and Stripes, rigid on a small flag pole. Beyond it, behind the distant mountains was a planet instantly recognisable from the iconic photographs taken by the many moon expeditions as our own planet, blue seas, green and brown continents, swathed in white clouds. All the proof I ever needed of this newfound ability to span space.
I would willingly have remained there drinking in the fantastic vistas but Derek was pulling us back into the dimensional portal from which we had emerged. Anticipating even further wonders I made no resistance to follow. Once again we found ourselves in the maelstrom of the higher dimensions
but as we progressed I sensed a change. A feeling of unease possessed me and I felt a growing alarm in Derek. Colours previously experienced as warm now seemed colder and more drab. I heard as from a far distance a sound akin to the scrabbling of insectile claws on a polished floor. There was a developing sense of malignancy and faint echoes of insane shouts and harrowing screams impinged on our senses. Derek was urging haste and I could feel his fear. I was assailed by panic and struggled to remain as close to my guide as possible, for without him I would be lost in the chaos. As we hurtled as fast as we could I sensed that loathsome and monstrous presences were drawing ever closer. There was the cloying smell of rancid sweat and rotting excrement, a hurtful shrieking and hideous chittering, a grotesque snuffling noise of a blind blackness seeking its prey. At last we burst through a dizzying spiral of grey cloud and emerged back in Derek's study. I fell to my knees in shock and exhaustion. Derek ran to the lectern and slammed shut the book. Bracing myself against the wall I struggled to my feet, thankful that we had managed to regain our simple three dimensional world. But