“I couldn’t say. It might be tomorrow, it might be next year.”
“Next year! I can’t be out of my body that long! The, the first time everyone thought I was in a coma, which was okay because we were in a freaking car accident. But this time... I mean... I... can’t we get me home sooner than that? I can’t stay here!”
“You’re right. You can’t. You don’t really belong to this world, anymore than we belong to yours, even if we belong to the same race. I’m going to have to talk to my superiors about you. We always try to get stolen minds back into their original bodies. Sometimes the body is no longer fit by the time we find them, and they have to live in artificial bodies instead. However, yours seems to be a special case. We’ve never encountered a mind stolen from Earth before.”
Starla seemed to consider this.
“In fact, the pirates may not have stolen anything from there before either – usually these rogue ships aren’t up to date on history, they may not realise that Earth is our home planet. But even if they do, they may have sent one of their own there to see if there’s any more telepathic energy to take.”
Taylor looked alarmed and Starla have him a sharp look.
“Is there anyone telepathic you know near your body?”
“Yes! My brother Isaac, and his girlfriend Carla and her brother Nate, and my ex-girlfriend Rachel.”
“What type of Telepathy?”
“Umm, normal.”
“Normal? Like just communicating from mind to mind, sending images and stuff? No memory or thought reading, or probes?”
“Yep.”
“They’re probably safe then. Normal Telepathy isn’t really powerful enough to make the weapons properly.”
“What exactly are you saying about them sending someone down?”
“Well,” Starla replied, taking a deep breath, “they’ve probably sent one of their own telepaths into your body.”
“What?” Taylor exploded.
“He won’t be able to access your memories or anything,” suddenly Starla looked amused. “In fact, he probably won’t know English. He won’t be able to understand your friends, and your friends won’t understand him. Interesting.”
“Oh great. That’s all I need. Some space pirate taking over my body who can’t speak English and probably can’t play the piano either. Or any other instrument for that matter.”
“Why’s that important?”
“I’m a musician. I’m in a band with my brothers Isaac and Zac. And we are in the public eye. That’s why it’s a problem. Bigger problem, we’re on a cruise ship which a bunch of other musicians and so being able to play is going to be an issue,” Taylor groaned. “I can see the headlines now: Taylor Hanson becomes babbling idiot during cruise. Oh no... MTV.”
“MTV?”
“It a TV channel focused on music that’s covering the cruise.”
“TV?”
“Television.”
Starla looked confused.
“It’s a box that gets transmitted moving pictures. And sound. Kinda like when telepaths send each other images – err, videos except it’s electrical not telepathic and it goes to specially made boxes.”
“Oh! Computers.”
“Well... close but not exactly. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You know what media is don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, MTV is media. And they love gossip. And once they realise that... umm... I’m not myself... oh they’re going to have a field day. Or maybe a field week, because that’s how long the cruise is.”
“Field day?”
“A really good time.”
“Oh. Well, I’m sure you and your friends have handled problems like this before.”
Taylor snapped ‘his’ fingers.
“Jo!”
“Huh?”
“Jo, Jo! Jo is the smartest person on the planet. If anyone can figure out a way out of that mess, she will. One of her powers is Intelligence and boy, she is at that.”
Starla grinned her amusement at Taylor’s gleefulness.