Escape Beyond the Barriers

Sailor flees her home to avoid an attack by gang members. She stashes herself in the garage of her neighbor, Timi, who invents equipment at a military black site and who also tinkers in his garage. One of the gang members, Rocky, tails her into the garage, so Sailor takes her chances with Timi's invisibility device still under development instead of facing the gang's violence. Rather than become invisible, Sailor transports to a world, Notia, in another universe, but Rocky pursues her there. The ruler or caretaker for that territory, Slick, dips into the minds of all living creatures as easily as dipping a toe into water. Meanwhile, Timi supposes his device killed his neighbor, so he struggles with ironing out the final kinks in it while his boss, the colonel, schemes to get his hands on it. Sailor's driving urge to return home pales with the possible military invasion of Notia by the colonel. Compounding that with the decimation of Earth as well leaves Sailor, Timi, and Slick as the only three to avert the destruction of two worlds. The story celebrates individualism and friendship. It also challenges the notion that striving toward a goal is the only way to reach it. As Slick says, "A better strategy sometimes is to escape what binds you to your particular rut, break through the barriers restraining you, so to speak, and then your paths to possibilities open up."