"Yes!" he hissed as the 4-ball dropped into the pocket.
Taylor had been most delighted when he discovered that these people had a pool table. And darts. They didn't have a lot of other things he was used to, but these they did. Surprised, but delighted.
He was playing a game against another person stuck in these artificial bodies. Except Ronin had a custom made one. The body allowed him much more flexibility, and the telepathic disk drive was much more accessible.
"For security reasons," Ronin had explained, "you have to remain in that body for about six months, and then you get to apply. A lot of telepaths who end up stolen from their bodies can end up too badly scarred to be given more freedom. It's sad, truly sad. My friend Don and I had our minds stolen at the same time. I'm sorry to say that he's still in one of those bodies, and he always will be."
He sighed.
"Don is no longer the person I once knew."
And on that statement Ronin refused to speak any more about it.
Taylor made his next shot and didn't get any in. Ronin considered the balls. Taylor didn't know if Ronin was simply more experienced than him, or if it were the flexibility of his body, but Ronin was definitely beating him.
The door to the rec room slid open.
"Taylor," Starla said, coming in. "Good news, they've found the pirates."
"What? They have?" Taylor asked, his eyes wide.
"Yep. We're going through their files now. Hopefully it won't be long before we track down their operative who's in your body."
"Whoo hoo!"
Taylor attempted to leap in the air with joy, and barely got two inches around. He also attempted to dance around the room in delight, but the body was so restrictive that had it not been for the stabilising mechanism, he would have fallen flat on his face. Starla laughed.
"Congratulations," Ronin said. "You're one of the lucky ones."
Taylor turned to him, grateful that the body didn't allow much expression so he couldn't wipe the huge smile of delight that would have been there.
"Ronin I..."
"Hey, don't worry about me. When they found my body it was, well, rotted. But I've gotten used to this one now, and it's a lot better than my old one," Ronin grinned. "You go home and rejoin your family and friends."
"Thanks."
"Here," Starla said, holding a disk in her hand. "This disk will teach you how to put the safeguard on the Plakita device."
"Okay."
Starla went behind him and inserted the disk. A moment later Taylor knew how to do it.
"Whoa," Taylor said. "This is so Matrix."
"Matrix?" Starla asked, confused.
"Umm, 'The Matrix' is the name of a movie back home. It involved... oh, never mind."
"Okay then..."