Stay: The search begins
Main character: Frank Melton -- bankrupt and unemployed.
Theme: During meditation, when the brain reaches the alpha level of brain activity, mind travel becomes a possibility. When this occurs, the mind is transported into the body of a compatible recipient on a planet far from Earth.
How to order
'Stay: The search begins' is available in hardcover from Eloquent Books, and can be purchased from the link below. (US$28.50)
Summary: While meditating, Frank Melton sees glimpses of another world, which he believes to be a trick -- a ruse generated in his mind -- and he attempts to prove this to himself... If only to preserve his own sanity.
It's a difficult time in his life -- bankrupt, unemployed, and depressed, Frank soon finds himself in the psychiatrist's chair -- an event that prompts his return to meditation, and heralds major changes in his life.
Soon after, having failed to prove the fallacy of his visions, he becomes convinced of the realities of "mind travel," and is soon taken in as an operative for the Intergalactic Council, for whom he works on distant planets.
At first, he travels to the planet Trelliin for training, before being relocated to a developing planet, Tishog, where he is sent to an asylum in order to locate information regarding the location of the original mind transport device -- a device that could chaos in the Universe, as it is also said to have the ability to control the mind it transferred.
He is soon reassigned to Tishog, accompanied by similar operatives, where he is tasked to retrieve a component of this device -- before it falls into the wrong hands.
Later, he is returned to Tishog in order to procure a sample of a drug that can trap the mind of an operative in the host body, also leaving them trapped and comatose on their home planet. During this trip, he learns that one of his fellow operatives also hails from Earth... and he is asked to help in his situation on Earth. What he learns about this other operative makes him rethink his participation in the program.
