Page 4 of Temple

She still didn’t know why she was there.

Sage jolted and breathed in the scent of antiseptic and human sweat. Damn. She needed a shower again. The glowing casing that she found herself in looked like a repair tube, but she had never woken up in one before.

“Um, hello?”

The scaled doctor, who reminded her of a rhino with acne, stood next to a woman with elaborate dark pink hair, silvery skin, and silks and jewellery that put her firmly in an elevated social class.

The woman looked at her and smiled. “So, you are awake. I hear you wish to become a companion.”

“No. I wish to be a farmer. I don’t know why I am here.” She looked to the doctor. “How long was I out?”

He looked nervous. “The regen unit resuscitated you two days ago. We have been travelling for twelve days to this rendezvous.”

Sage was limp but determined as she swung her legs out of the med bed. “So, Madam, why are you here?”

“Well, you are blunt. Lady Missal observed that you have the making of a possible companion.”

“What did she get for scouting me?”

“One hundred thousand credits.”

“Right. Now, here is the question I have. Did the overseer authorize my removal from his world? I had just been given a position as an agricultural minister. My bond was paid, so Missal had only one reason to volunteer me.”

The companion paled. “You... were not of a menial position?”

“I had just been on the winning team for the harvest festival. Everyone on that world knows what I look like, and I was literally the only one of my kind on the whole planet.”

“Oh. Oh no.” The woman paled.

“Well, being here won’t help me. This is a circuit transport. It won’t get me home.”

The woman was a minty green, but she nodded. “Come with me. My shuttle is waiting.”

Sage checked that she was wearing med clothing and followed.

She walked behind the woman with her hands loosely clutching each elbow, and they made it through the ship and to the shuttle in a few minutes.

Sage sat in the seat she was directed to as the companion went to speak with her pilot. There was a slight shudder as the shuttle was released, and then the lady was sitting across from her, holding a tablet. Her expression was pained. “Did you have a lover who was jealous or who wanted you trained?”

“No, but Lady Missal and her overseer were interested in me. He and I stayed up late into the night discussing fertilizer, but I don’t think he would have done this. Missal had issues with my conversation with him, and I might have indicated that dancing was not her forte. The overseer wanted me to teach her.”

The other woman winced. “That might do it. So, you can dance?”

“Yes. It was taught at the Education Station. I am the child of a dead world, so I didn’t stand on dignity.”

“May I get your information so I can look up your records?”

“Certainly. My weak points were etiquette and looking interested in what the other person was saying.”

The companion smirked. “That is always the hardest.” She got a canny look. “What is your compatibility rating?”

“Do you want the actual number or the one I gave to the overseer?”

“Actual, please.”

“Okay. Three hundred eighty-six.”

The companion’s tablet slid to the floor.

---