Telepathic Learning w/o breaking the game

[ratsta]

tl;dr I've pretty much talked myself out of this, but if someone has some clever ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Hi folks,

My char in a scifi campaign is an historian with a few physical psi powers and it's OK to add some mental ones. We've been given a chunk of points to spend and one idea that piqued my interest is Borrow Skill which a little searching leads me to the Telepathic Learning (PP16) example of Modular Abilities (B71). I'd first like to clarify my understanding of the costs, secondly, clarify details on how it might work and thirdly, ask for feedback on game balance.

1. My understanding is that I don't lose any CP when the ability changes. Thus in the context of Telepathic Learning, I could borrow the co-pilot's skill and assist them land the plane since the main pilot is unconscious.
The cost is Base + CP pool which in the case of the example is 5cp + 4cp/point of borrowed skill. So for 13cp I could borrow up to 2 levels of Piloting. Then when the plane is safely on the ground, I can release and borrow the chief steward's skill of Leadership to help coordinate the safe and expeditious evacuation of the aircraft. I don't lose/burn any CP for this, they're simply reassigned.

This seems awfully cheap for the utility it provides without any kind of limitations (e.g. fatigue or time based). There won't always be someone around with a relevant skill to borrow but in many situations, that isn't a meaningful limitation. Of course we can always make it more expensive; just wondering if anyone else agrees that this is too cheap or can suggest reasons why it's not so cheap after all.

2. For this example ability, would you think that I'd get, to put it bluntly, a menu of skills/abilities to choose from? In terms of flavour, I'd say not, I'd need to specify what skill I'm looking for, but since each borrow is measured in "seconds equal to the number of cp being borrowed", we're both going to get bored with playing Fish. "Does he have piloting?" No, go fish. "Does he have Navigation (Air)?" No, go fish. :) Any suggestions for a nice way to deal with this?

3. I'm mostly concerned with unreasonable access to knowledge. My character is an Historian obsessed with learning all there is to know. We're Humans adrift in a galactic milieux and we're supposed to be hunting for information, uncovering a vast tapestry of legend, intrigue and excitement. If I simply borrow the Royal Historian's History (Kingdom) skill, or the alien shaman's Hidden Lore (Galactic Mysteries) skill, the GM is going to throw his hands up and walk away! Any suggestion on how to NOT break my GM? :D

Thanks!