Stephen Crawford sighed as he scrolled through the equations on the screen in front of him.  The 23-year-old shaggy graduate student sat between two fellow students in the cramped three-person office.  Papers, books, pens, and three dirty coffee mugs covered his desk, and the sour smell of past meals and body odor greeted him every time he entered the office.

The colleague on his left said something in Mandarin, talking over top of Stephen.  The student on his right gave a short answer and the two got up and left the office.

Don’t mind me, thought Stephen sarcastically.  I appreciate the invitation, but I can’t join you for coffee right now.

The final months of his doctoral studies, getting a Ph.D. in Physics, wasn’t what he had expected.  He’d hoped for erudite scholars and a community devoted to the mind and scientific inquiry.  Instead, he’d found the petty politics and jockeying for position that had bothered him everywhere else he’d been throughout his life.

Once again, he briefly fantasized about running off in the night, changing his name, and leaving his life behind.  It’d be silly to leave a Ph.D. this close to the end, he reminded himself.

Switching over to another tab in his browser, he glanced through the small number of responses he’d received on the free dating site.  The messages ranged from mocking to hostile.  Oh well, he thought.  Too busy to date now anyway, and I’ll probably be leaving town after my defense.  He remembered his last date, a few weeks ago, when the woman had shown up with two friends.  They expected him to pay for all of their dinners, while they ignored him and talked to one another. That had used up all his discretionary funds for the month, and the three of them had departed after eating without a thank you or goodbye.

I suppose a nasty message beats that, he thought.  It’s cheaper at least.

When he’d first arrived in the department and gotten his initial funding check, it was smaller than it should have been.  He visited the department administrative assistants to try to get it fixed, but they’d started screaming at him and ran him out of their office.  He’d complained to his supervisor, but was told that he had to work it out with the administrative assistants.  They gave him dirty looks every time they saw him.  Money had been tight throughout his four years of grad studies.

The office mates returned with take away drinks and a third friend.  The new person stopped next to Stephen and looked at the Land of Legends poster above his desk.

“What is ‘Land of Legends’?” asked the new arrival.

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Turning to look at him, Stephen replied, “It's a setting for ‘Domains of Danger’, a tabletop role-playing game I used to play in high school.  During my undergrad, I played the collectible card game based on DoD a bit, until…”

Their friend cut him off, saying something in Mandarin.  His two office mates chuckled.  Left colleague said something that included DoD, which elicited a snort from right colleague.  The three resumed chatting in Mandarin, and Stephen silently returned to his manuscript.

Stephen’s supervisor, Dr. Giordano, had grown increasingly frustrated as the grad student worked on his mathematical model for multiple dimensions.  Dr. Giordano kept making the same, lame objections, which Stephen refuted every time they met.  His supervisor had wanted him to extend the supervisor's own research program, which Stephen felt had been thoroughly debunked 15 years earlier and was a dead end.  He wasn’t allowed to say that, of course.  Stephen dreaded their infrequent meetings and hoped he could defend his thesis and move on.

Without a supportive Ph.D. supervisor, his options when he moved on would be quite limited.  Any post-doc or faculty position would expect a glowing letter of recommendation from Dr. Giordano, which Stephen knew wouldn’t be forthcoming.

Maybe I’ll become a programmer like some of my fellow undergrads did? mused Stephen.  Insurance companies and places like that in industry need people with advanced mathematics.

His office mates and their friend left for the evening without saying goodbye and, with a sigh, Stephen dug back into his thesis work.  Reading through the equations yet again, he felt the warmth of pride at the intellectual case they built.  If anyone would just spend the time to understand what I’ve produced, they’d agree with me.  It’s undeniable.

He had large sections of the work memorized and was pleased with what he read.  Even if no one ever understands it, this is good work, he thought to himself.  This was worth the time to create it, just for its own sake.  Even if it doesn’t lead anywhere.

He felt a sensation, almost like an electric charge, and all the text disappeared from his screen.  Odd, he thought.  Good thing I’ve been making backups.  Glancing at the papers on his desk, he saw that the print-outs of equations from his thesis had vanished from them and sections of them were blank.  A buzzing feeling at the back of his mind kept trying to get his attention, but he ignored it and in a panic switched the browser tab and loaded his cloud backup.  Staring at the screen, he saw that his cloud backup had a few random documents, but his thesis was no longer there.  It now had more storage space available than it had had last time he checked it.

Is this what a mental breakdown feels like? he thought to himself on the edge of hysterical laughter.  The buzzing in his mind persisted.  Briefly considering going and jumping in front of a bus, he caught himself and thought I can rewrite it, I almost had it all memorized anyway.  Whatever happened here, I can fix it.

Letting himself acknowledge the buzzing, he found the concept of his thesis floating in his mind in a way it never had before.  The concept seemed to vibrate with energy.  Am I insane? he thought to himself.  The energized concept seemed to beg to be unleashed.  Off to the insane asylum I go, he thought as he unleashed it.

Suddenly, Stephen found himself on a grassy hill overlooking the city of Hopedale, jewel of the Land of Legends.  The morning sun shone brightly and a small stand of trees grew vibrantly 100 feet away.  He was on a well-worn dirt path winding to the city gates.  Recognizable flowers interspersed with alien flora dotted the surrounding hill.  The clean air invigorated him with every breath, with the slightest hint of burning wood coming from the nearby town.  He recognized where he was immediately, then fell to the ground as there was no longer a chair underneath him.