Committed to the Alpine Grove asylum for a murder he didn’t commit, brain-damaged war
veteran Jack Starks is subjected to sensory deprivation in a straightjacket, which sends him
fifteen years into the future for several hours at a time where he meets the adult version of
Jackie, a small girl whom he briefly met and was kind to shortly before being incarcerated.
He learns from Jackie that back in the asylum he has only a few days to live, and together,
he and Jackie try to figure out a way to escape that fate.
The story is loosely based on
Jack London’s The Star Rover, although London’s protagonist travels through the
stars and into past lives. Using future information to change the present was never part of
London’s story.
— Michael Main
No, no you didn’t. Jack Starks did, and Jack Starks is dead. He’s dead. His body was
found New Year’s Day, 1993, Alpine Grove. He’s dead.