Free Four Lords of Diamond - Book 1 by Jack L. Chalker

this rock, somebody muttered.
    Patra just smiled. Not exactly, although it keeps us in this solar system. It's a fact of life, so accept that fact. Don't even think about escape, beating this system. Not only can't it be done—and some of the best minds in the galaxy have tried—-but the death it brings is the worst, most horrible sort imaginable.
    She paused to let that sink in, knowing it probably wouldn't, then continued. The advantage of the organism is that you'll never have to worry about even the slightest ailment again. No toothaches, no colds, no infection, nothing. Even pretty large wounds, if not fatal or of an extremely critical nature, will heal quickly, and tissue regeneration is possible. There has never been a need for any doctor on Lilith, nor will there be. In other words, the Warden organism pays for what it takes.
    She went on for a while, detailing some of the basics of the planet that I had already gotten from the briefing; then it was time for food. That took the most getting used to. The cuisine of Lilith seemed to consist of cooked insects of all sorts and lots of weeds, sometimes mixed with a grain of some sort that was a very unappetizing purple in color.
    There were a few of my group who just couldn't manage the food for a while, but of course everybody would come around eventually. For a few it might be really tough going, or prove to be a very effective form of dieting.
    Getting used to insect stews and chewy purple bread was going to be tough, I told myself, but I would have to learn to eat it and like it or else. Over the next few days I did manage to adjust to eating the food and to crapping in the bushes, using leaves instead of automatic wipers, and all the rest As I said earlier, we were chosen for our ability to adapt to just about anything—and this was the just about the training manuals had implied.
    Patra was also right about the side effects of the organism's invasion. I experienced strong dizziness, some odd aches and pains, and a feeling of itching all over inside—damned unpleasant, but I could live with it. We all had the runs, too, but I suspect that was mostly due to the food, not to the organism.
    So far, though, Patra's orientation lectures had mostly covered things I already knew about, and though they went into greater detail than any I'd had before and were therefore welcome, she hadn't covered the facts I needed so far. On the fourth very long day—it was hell sleeping in that climate as it was, without the days and nights being so much longer— she finally got around to material of more interest.
    I know a lot of you have been wondering and asking why there are no machines, no spaceport, no modern buildings or conveniences here, she began. So far I've put you off, simply because this was important enough for me to want you all to be through most of the ill effects of arrival. The reason is easy to explain but damned difficult to accept, but it's the explanation for everything you've seen around here. She seemed to look at each of us in turn, a half-smile on her face.
    Lalith, she said, is alive. No, that doesn't make sense—but none of the Wardens do. I am going to tell you what is in terms that can only be approximations of what is going on.
    I want you to imagine that every single thing you see—not just the grass and trees, but everything: rocks, the very dirt under your feet—is alive, all cells of a single organism, each of which has its own Warden organism inside it in the same symbiotic relationship as it is establishing in your bodies. That organism likes the world exactly the way it is. It maintains it. Chop a tree down and another grows from its stump in record time. Meanwhile the original starts decaying with equal speed—in a full day it's started to decompose; within three it's completely gone, absorbed into the ground. Same for people. When you die you'll be completely gone to dust in under three days. That's why our food is what it is. It's what