“She?”

“Yes.  Synthetic entities can be either male of female.  Since you are unmarried, you might enjoy her company.”

“If you say so.  I don’t have any clothes with me except what I carried in my carpet bag.”

“You will have a clothes synthesizer to produce your clothes and a food and beverage synthesizer to produce the food and beverages you want.  It is preprogrammed with well over 300 different dishes you should enjoy as well as over 50 beverage choices.  I’m sorry, but the unit can’t produce alcoholic beverages or foods that have alcohol as one of the ingredients.  Besides that, it should serve delicious foods and beverages you should enjoy.”

“I’m not much of a drinker anyways.  Maybe a beer every now and then.  But I can live without alcohol.  I’ve seen what it can do to people.  I’d rather not end up like them.”

The pair stood and shook hands over the table.  The woman said, “Congratulations, Hiram.  I believe you’ll enjoy living in Strormhaggen.  The climate is temperate and the conditions are pleasant.  Go with my assistant Dran and he will take you to the interdimensional portal facility where you will be shifted to the city.  Good luck.”

The man entered the room and took Hiram to an elevator which brought them to the underground portion of Newgate.   Hiram was amazed at what the people wore.  Almost no man wore a suit and the dresses women wore were looser than the styles the women in the outside world wore.  There was more skin shown too.

Hiram walked through the portal and entered the foyer of a modest house that was going to be his new home.  A woman approached him who was wearing a pants suit that clung to her body to show off her shape.

“I’m sorry if I caught you before you could get dressed,” he apologized. 

“I am dressed.  This is what I normally wear.”

“But pantaloons are worn under the skirts.”

“I don’t wear skirts.  Let me get you up to speed with this world so you won’t seem so strange to the people around you.”

For the next month, thanks to intensive education, Hiram learned a lot and began to adjust to the new world he was living in.  He also developed affections for the synthetic who was helping him.  She seemed human to him and she didn’t discourage his showing of affection toward her.  But his Victorian era Christian upbringing kept him from going too far sexually.  She was more like a housekeeper than a lover.  But he didn’t mind being seen with her in public.