dbell@nsc.UUCP (David I. Bell) (11/24/83)
Several years ago I read a trilogy, and I want to know what it was. In the first story, the main character (say "Joe") crash landed on an uninhabited planet, and while there found an invisible creature which took residence in his brain. This creature was a "mental symbiote", and could mentally communicate with Joe, to give him advice and such. But it (usually) left Joe able to control his own body and make his own decisions. Joe resented the creature's presence, and wanted it to go away, but it was unable to leave until Joe died, at which time it would find another body to inhabit. Joe eventually got rescued, and as payment to the rescuer, had to perform various tasks for many years. Each of the three books concerns one of his tasks. (This setup is a lot like the "Stainless Steel Rat" stories). Along the way the creature becomes more and more important to Joe, and after a while Joe doesn't resent it, and instead depends on it to help him. In one of the stories Joe had to go to a planet where everyone lived in tunnels. In the final story, Joe had to fight something in a strange nebula connected to some alternate universe, and the creature died, leaving Joe all alone and unhappy. That is all I remember about the trilogy. Can anyone tell me what the titles are, or who wrote them? Thanks!!