Freelance Traveller

Torrey Luis d’Orander

profiled by Ken Murphy

This article originally appeared in the September 2011 issue of the downloadable magazine.

Torrey Luis d’Orander 8AB888 Age 55
Human Male 5 Terms Athlete
Handgun-0, Computer-0, Small Craft-1, Jai-Alai-5, Brawling-1, Streetwise-2, Carousing-4, Mechanical-1, Grav Vehicle-2, Linguistics-1 (Chinese)

Torrey grew up the youngest of three children of middle-management parents in one of Nguyen-Baurhaus Corporation’s massive arcologies, on the Big Island of Hallborg, in the Northern hemisphere, right above the equator on Driscoll’s World.

Living near the top of the arcology, young Torrey and his companions tended toward hanging around the heliport to catch the breezes, and watch the grav vehicles and fleets of ancient osprey take off. Once a few of the bays were empty, the kids would attempt impromptu games of jai-alai. Torrey and his friends would be run off the flight deck what felt like hundreds of times over the years.

Nguyen-Baurhaus, being the producers of Earth Cola, and always keen on fostering good public relations, would sponsor various youth-leagues that would play against one another within a single arcology, or against different archologies—sometimes even playing against other corporations’ teams.

While there were any number of different sports, the arcology at Hallborg tended more toward jai-alai, track and field, and riding. Torrey had a real gift for jai-alai, and with the proper grooming, received a full Earth Cola-provided scholarship to college.

Though not an overly apt pupil academically, Torrey did, not too surprisingly, excel at sports, and, given the college dynamics, partying.

Young Mr. d’Orander was a first-round draft pick, and bid college goodbye in his junior year to become a pro.

The phenomenal athlete quickly became the face of jai-alai. Torrey spent many years playing for a number of different teams; and, through talent and determination, stayed the face of jai-alai through his career. When he kept playing past his fifteenth year, at an age when other stars retired, he started to be known as “the Grandfather of Jai-Alai”.

After twenty years in the sport—including several near-fatal injuries, and several well-publicized procedures—the Grandfather of Jai-Alai, Torrey Luis d’Orander, retired from the game.

With an impressive portfolio, as well as many lucrative endorsement deals over the years, Torrey is quite wealthy. He is easily recognizable within some 20 parsecs of Olde Earth, and is known even to those unfamiliar with the sport.

A few years after retiring from jai-alai, d’Orander opened his own chain of restaurants, d’Orander’s FRI, specializing in potatoes. He has been a successful restaurateur for fifteen years.

Editor’s Note: d’Orander’s FRI was profiled in the June 2011 issue of Freelance Traveller, and can now be found on our website, in the Promenade section of In A Store Near You.