Poor Man's Travel

A hard science fiction short story first published in the Anywhere But Earth anthology.

Jas Grimshaw works as a mining pilot for the ice harvesting operations at New Jakarta Space Station. In his free time, he's a mindbase traveller. His mind travels on a bullet probe to other parts of settled space to swap bodies while other people occupy his.

Normally, it's a great way of seeing the galaxy, but one of his swaps is about to go very, very bad. The swap mind, a brilliant scientist, has no intention to return to his body, which he's left in a tight spot. And Jas, laid back, poorly-educated, is not the best person to cope with the tense situation.