Lauren was the first to volunteer to pose as a Di-ore--a pleasure woman--and enter the realm of the Warrior Prince, King Rama--and then everything that could go wrong did. Humans had occupied their colony--named Atlantis for the legendary continent it reminded them of--for less than a decade when the epidemic struck--so swiftly and viciously it looked as if they entire colony would be wiped out. Desperation was their inspiration. They decided they would have to go out among the natives of their new world, the barbarians they had remained aloof to since their arrival, to find what they needed for a cure. The subterfuge they used to send out their 'trojan horses'--the women who volunteered to collect the samples--was a custom practiced among the barbarians, the Uti. In the Uti tongue, they were called pleasure women.