The Adventgures of Dorrick and TongSu Series

In 3818ad. the stargate has only recently opened to the planet Kassidor and people from other planets can now reach this huge and ancient world. Dorrick’s new field assignment is to take a scientist to a distant city on this primitive planet to study the ancient sex slavers of the Borlunth basin. They are of special interest because they seem so uncharacteristic of the peaceful and pastoral world of Kassidor. Only one eccentric professor had studied that culture in depth, and written three graphic texts about it so that today the name Borlunth is a worldwide metaphor for sexual excess. This expedition should be much easier than Dorrick’s previous assignments on Earth because the planet is peaceful. A modification to human nature called the Instinct prevents people from using force or violence on each other. Unfortunately he never worried about the wildlife, the Goblins, the Orcs, the tribesmen or the automated weapons brought by a rival expedition. But most of all, he never worried about the vast distances on a planet without modern transportation. TongSu is distressed when her shipping contract for a genetics instrument company is terminated. Her lighter-than-air motile plant is set up for hauling cargo, not passengers but there is less and less demand for air cargo work these days. There is some work for smaller balloons, and possible passenger work in distant basins. The Kassikan uses floaters, but she doesn’t want to sell hers to them. When she is down there looking for work she finds a very different opportunity, one that will change her life for decades. The professor, thru a newly-arrived assistant, finds that there are two expeditions bound their way. Both expeditions claim they are bound for Borlunth for study, but they both have hidden agendas that include returning artifacts for black market sales, and both have contraband that the professor is informed of. The professor has no intention of selling any artifacts and depends on the Instinct for protection, but the Instinct works only on the human mind and not on the circuitry of automated weapons. This volume contains the first three episodes of the Dorrick and TongSu series, all concerning Dorrick's first assignment on the planet Kassidor. The story features the different aspects of sexuality in Kassidorian societies, how they differ from the human norm and how those differences affect the lives of the people. In here we see that the wizard’s modifications to human nature are not always complete and can have many unintended consequences. Because this concerns human sexuality, there is a fair amount of sex and sexuality in the story. It is not erotica because there is plenty of other adventure also. The youngest character in the story is sixty three Earth years of age.

Until now, Hostra Tours had been willing to accept a standard travelogue documentary of any place Dorrick went on Kassidor, but now the stargate has been open two years and the public is getting jaded. To keep them interested he is assigned to get more human interest in his reports. TongSu was still happy with her giant from the stars, but as they reached the great swamp city of Trenst, she felt it was time for some casual Variety. As luck would have it, she meets a fellow floater enthusiast who's partner knows someone who would make a great human interest story, a hunter of one of the swamp’s deadliest predators. TongSu had no idea just how much danger Dorrick would face while recording him, not just from the deadly beasts of the swamp, but from the child-like party girl who was paired with the guy she dallied with. The guide books say entering the wildhull swamp is almost certain death but Dorrick has never been influenced by fear, and pressed on into the deep swamp even though his guide was addled by a strong hallucinogen. By the time he understood what drew people to face the horrors of this swamp, it was already too late for him, and he was trapped in something even more fearsome than a dactyl's jaws. This is primarily an adventure story of man against nature, and man against the terrors in his own mind. A similar terror is faced by many forgotten people on the grimy streets of cities everywhere. This story tries, allegorically, to convey the power of the demons they must face.

Dorrick would do anything in his power but kill to bring the creator of loon to justice. Making the most addictive substance known to man was evil in its own right, but to have done so and gone unpunished was unthinkable. With great difficulty he eventually found the name of its creator and the rumor that his lab had been in the East Wash of Trenst. While danger from other people was minimal, the East Wash had many other dangers, some mild like getting bombed when passing under an apartment tree without plumbing, to serious like falling victim to predatory fish. The wash is the home of some of the most devious people in the city, but also some of the most helpful. It just wasn't obvious which was which. It didn't matter, he would not be denied, even if it meant leaving TongSu behind at Kahlekmeel with Ression and going off on his own. Honshu was disturbed by Dorrick leaving, and so was TongSu though she wasn't so vocal about it. She couldn't afford to be, her balloon had gone to seed and she was captive of Kahlekmeel House until the new bag was grown and detached from her root. She was trying hard to fit in at the farm and trying hard to be everything Ression could want, until she found out the truth regarding the 'reality freaks' and the 'loonies.' Dorrick eventually finds that his quarry has gone to work for the most powerful and sinister wizard on the planet. In spite of that he presses on. Deep in his heart, he could never believe the Centorin military, the most powerful the human race had ever known, could ever be wary of the power of any person or organization on Kassidor. He was quite sure the note to that effect that TongSu found when looking up the wizard Brancettrabble was written by a Kassidorian and had to be hyperbole. There were no weapons of any power here, nothing beyond a crossbow. Thinking they could stand against the weapons and warships of Centorin was ludicrous. He was still sure of it at the end. The wizard's palace was not as impressive as the ring of Trenst or the campus of the Kassikan. They had been treated well, almost royally. The only clue to what had really happened was the calendars of the remaining planet seemed to have lost a week.

Among the phantasmagorical erosion of the Zil escarpment is one of the most remote and primitive societies on the planet of Kassidor with literacy and a semblance of civilization not arriving til the 50th century. Here we find people still living in caves and still hunting dangerous beasts as a way of life. It is one of the few places remaining on the planet with organized conflict between villages, or between any groups of people. The Instinct may prevent violence between people, but it does not prevent people from one village from vandalizing the public works or crops of another. Each attack has been launched in retaliation for the last for so long that no one remembers what actually started it. When a madman figures out a way to defeat the Instinct and destroy the entire rival village, Dorrick and TongSu become involved when the balloon becomes a key element in saving that village. It has always been assumed that one’s sexual orientation is fixed and determined by genetics. This is almost completely true for ephemerals who live only twenty decades and who’s genetics are fixed at birth. When sex is no longer reproduction but conjugation, due to the Species Immunity Complex, one’s genetics are no longer fixed. When life is long enough that no one remembers how they got together with their partner or why, the meaning of ‘forever’ is different than the ‘forever’ we pledge at marriage. When this happens to a lesbian/bisexual couple in the village where they are staying, Dorrick and TongSu become involved when one partner asks for a balloon ride out of the area and the other decides TongSu is the new object of her desire.

Dorrick, and all of Centorin, had never heard of the city of Bordzvek until they drew near it. TongSu had hardly heard of it in her centuries on Kassidor. When they reached it, they saw immediately that it was one of the greatest cities in all of human space, and they wonder why so little is known about it. But as they are tying up up at one of the millions of towers that make up the crystal city, someone attempts to jump from a balcony a few floors below. Dorrick soon finds that the girl, as well as the city, reminds him of home, and he gets deeply involved trying to rescue the girl from her demons. At first they think she is in the grip of mental problems, until her home is put up for sale and her things are moved out. Though he can't prove she didn't do it herself, Dorrick tries to help. In doing so, they stumble across the secret behind the crystal city. Mental illness can be a dangerous thing, it can endanger the one who suffers from it, and endanger those around them. Irrational thoughts of the sufferer can cause irrational behavior in others. In episode 8 of the Dorrick and TongSu series, Dorrick jeopardizes his relationship with TongSu to try and help a troubled girl who exhibits all the symptoms of a stressed out girl from back home, insisting that maintaining a career she can no longer carry out is the only way she can keep the luxurious home she loves. TongSu's patience is tested not only by Dorrick's dalliance, but by the isolation of a basin that hardly believes in the outside world. An isolation that seems silly until they find themselves in trouble because of it.

The East Bordzvek basin is known thruout Kassidor as a place of certain death. It is too hot for human life, the ground is too rugged and broken to traverse, but most of all, the wildlife is too deadly for even the most heavily armed expeditions to survive. Only the fringes of the basin had been seen, other than that, unmanned balloons and orbital vehicles were the only things that had ever seen it. Honshu is falling back into her loon addiction, uninterested in anything else of life, but without enough of a supply to last until more can be procured. Only an intensive rehabilitation campaign can save her from it at this point. Dorrick is sure it is the loss of the Wild World video feed that was making her give up on life, but the only way to save that show is to film in the East Basin. TongSu is tired of sharing Dorrick with Honshu, especially now that Honshu is claiming more and more of his attention as she sinks deeper into the clutches of the drug. She knows it is suicide to go to the East Basin, but hopes it will end the problems with Honshu once and for all. All she has to do is find a way to keep them all alive. Dorrick convinced himself this expedition was all about bringing Honshu back to life. He wouldn't admit to himself that his own boredom might have had something to do with it. Even more, he couldn't face the fact that Honshu was sure she had nothing more to gain from life and was using this expedition as a means to insure her own demise. She made sure she would die by using up her supply of loon when she knew that withdrawal would kill her when it ran out. Dorrick's guilt because he believed that he had caused her to do this was crushing. In their most difficult and dangerous adventure to date, the three of them must face unending attacks from the deadly creatures out of Hell time and time again. At the same time they must face their own internal demons, and an unknown group of people out of these steaming jungles who's agenda might not be the same as their own.

Dorrick has landed a new assignment from the University of Kex on Centorin. They are assisting the Kassikan in locating the last of Feanor's crystals using a ground penetrating imager. The crystal is believed to lie somewhere in the ruins of the Dark Lord's black tower in a has-been tourist trap called Mordor. Just getting there was an adventure in itself, it was a year's flight from Knidola over lands filled with Orcs and other mutants from early genetic science. They have to rescue the stranded instrument from floods in the Korst, and try to calm the fears of two bewildered Centorins who were completely unprepared for an expedition into the interior of Kassidor. They have to face denizens of the deep passages to rescue the crystal, and the wrath of the villagers who fear returning that crystal to light will bring back the horrors of the Wars of Magic. After their time in Knidola and another incident in Korst, TongSu was glad for the chance to turn the tables and let Dorrick deal with the fanged or shapeless women of this basin while she played with the most beautiful playboy she had ever encountered. But she should have known that getting involved with Dorrick on another mission from the University of Kex back on Centorin would lead to more danger than she was ready for, including great beasts from the deep places, and angry villagers fearing the Dark Lord's return. But the greatest danger she faced was when her boy toy played with sorcery from the Kassikan that was clearly too potent for him to handle. His mistake nearly cost her life, the world's freedom and a priceless crystal from ancient times. For all fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings,' here's a look at what happens in that spot almost six thousand years later.

Dorrick is restless. He doesn't know if it's TongSu's recuperation, boredom with the farm or boredom with Bordzvek. He knows he feels 'kept' at her farm, no matter how much he tries to help. Most of all he worries if it is boredom with TongSu. He worries that he's seen her thru this convalescence out of guilt. He knows he feels guilt over going to the East Basin and he's faced the fact that he did it for his own adrenaline needs and not Honshu's. TongSu knows Dorrick is getting bored. She's been more attached than ever since she lost a kidney in the East Basin. She grew more dependent on Dorrick as she healed, and more in awe of a hero who would stick with her thru this. She was now so wrapped up in him that she hardly thought about Variety, and had to force herself now. Now that TongSu was nearly recovered from the injuries she sustained in the East Basin, they thought it might be nice to take a different kind of trip. One where they could relax and recuperate, one where they might find the quiet time to renew their relationship. The Knidola Basin seemed ideal, it had few large predators, no ancient hatreds, few serious drugs and a lively beach scene. The natives were said to be laid-back and friendly, the prices reasonable and the inns comfortable. So it is TongSu who suggests they should get out and meet people, but the first people they meet are from an all-nude all-girl boat band who have just had their boat stolen. TongSu soon volunteers to help them spot it from the air and they soon learn that their bonds will be tested as never before in what becomes Dorrick and TongSu’s sexiest adventure.

Dorrick has now been on Kassidor ten Earth years, a decade and forty as he tells time now, and they are living comfortably in the Yakhan. Best of all, TongSu has remained with him. Then his old friend Bulf, with whom he'd done some light work in the past, invites him to a reunion dinner in Kex. He wonders how Bulf ever got the money to do that, but because Bulf promised that Jason and Vio would also be there, he thinks it would be nice to surprise TongSu with an all-expenses-paid trip to the de-facto capital of human space. He doesn't think that Bulf and Jason could have an ulterior motive for this trip until it is too late. As dinner is drawing to a close, Dorrick's old friends begin to try and tempt them into performing a mission with them. Dorrick insists his ten Earth years on Kassidor have left him completely out of training and TongSu can't imagine using violence against another human being. But as they are turning it down, a commotion breaks out among a Centorin Senator's party upstairs and they never get a chance to say no. Before they know what's happening, they run afoul of the Centorin military, then a force even more deadly than that, the paramilitary of the senator’s House. The twelfth episode of the Dorrick and TongSu series takes them to a world free of dangerous wildlife. All they intended to do was have dinner, reunite with some old friends and maybe reminisce about some of the harrowing adventures they'd had together both before and after they'd left Centorin. Instead this becomes their most action-packed adventure. From the time the senator is shot there is non stop action as they must battle their way out of the crime scene as well as in and out of a police station. Then the going gets rough as they are tracked from space and pursued by all the weaponry the most powerful world of 3828ad. can bring to bear. In this TongSu must face the fact that she always thought this stuff was done with special effects until now, and there is no 'new game' button when she is flying the real thing.