Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) (19 page)

"It would respond to one it liked?" Ignacio
asked.

"Vasiliy's did. I've even tried all the color
names Tish used to name hers." Rachel turned to her bot. "Ivory,
Olive, Chiffon, Smoky, Sandy."

Rachel stopped with a sigh. Not a bit of a
reaction.

"Glad I don't have a problem with my little
guys. They could care less what they are called," Ignacio said with
a grin.

"Lucky." Rachel let herself enjoy another big
bite of the lasagna. Velda must have tried a new recipe to use at
the bed and breakfast. She would have to remember to tell her she'd
found a winner.

"About the date," Ignacio said.

Rachel's eyes flew to his face, suddenly wary,
but he didn't wear the expression of a man trying to get out of a
date. Instead, he was still smiling.

"Where, exactly, were you planning on taking
me?" he asked.

Rachel gave a little secretive smile of her
own. "Not telling, You'll just have to wait and see. Do you have
another idea for one?"

"Actually, I do."

Rachel stopped with the fork halfway to her
mouth, in shock. They'd gone from him dodging dates, to now
suddenly in the mood for them? Oh no, did the ladies have a talk
with him? They wouldn't do that to her, would they?

"And it's not the reserve, as much as I like
flying squirrels," Ignacio said. "I'm thinking of something a
little more formal. Like music?"

"Of course."

"Good. Then expect a surprise after the pet
show is over." Ignacio attacked the last part of his lasagna
without revealing anything else.

Probably getting back at her. Served her
right, but she still intended to keep hers secret until they both
had more free time.

"So, does this mean what I think it does?"
Rachel ventured, not sure she should. Would he tuck into his shell
again?

Ignacio turned the intense gaze of his eyes
back on her, warming her more than food or wine ever could. "It
does. Any problem with it?"

"Problem? Why would there be a problem?"
Rachel ripped a piece of bread in half. "I look forward to
it."

"As do I."

Okay, he wasn't backing away. For the first
time since sitting down, Rachel felt utterly tongue-tied. What
should she say now? Her mind went blank.

An alarm sounding from her ID band took care
of the problem for her. A quick glance told her the rest of the day
wasn't going to go as well as it had up to this point.

"Damien, Rachel, stop your current repairs,"
came Arthur's voice. "You have new priorities."

"On my way," Rachel said into the bracelet,
already thinking of the best way to get to the new problem area the
fastest. Her bot squeaked, rushing to the supply cart.

"Duty calls?" Ignacio asked, folding his
napkin to set next to his near-empty plate.

"Duty is screaming," Rachel stuffed the last
bite of lasagna into her mouth as she started to stand
up.

Before she could swallow and say anything
else, Ignacio leaned over the table and kissed her on the cheek.
"Be careful out there. Come by for a quick visit tonight. The
babies are growing fast."

She nodded, swallowing the food. "I will. Say
hello to Irvine for me."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

SUCH A SHORT meal, but it lifted Ignacio's spirits
considerably. He felt like he could do anything. For once he looked
forward to the end of the pet show. This year he wouldn't feel the
post-show blues as in past years.

All because he wanted more time to spend with
Rachel. To see what kind of date she would plan for them. To show
her he could be romantic when he put his mind to it, as well. His
mind whirled with plans.

Places to go, shows and exhibits to take her
to. Redpoint One might be in the middle of nowhere, but thanks to
all the traffic funneled through it the social events were frequent
and varied. He planned to go to as many of them as he could with
Rachel.

He'd been holed up with his program for too
long. Now that he might have someone to enjoy life with, he
intended to make use of every opportunity. It also meant he would
benefit from another grad student or two to help with the
work.

He stopped in front of Irvine's enclosure,
grinning at the newt. "Rachel says hello."

Irvine glanced up at him before returning to
sunning himself under the artificial sun illuminating his
enclosure.

Ignacio found it hard to settle down to
anything. He wanted to go find Rachel again, to continue their
conversation, but instead he funneled the energy into work.
Rearranging and cleaning the feed room was something he'd planned
for a while, but put off as too long and dirty of a
project.

It took him less than an hour.

He moved to the rear benches and then to the
animal cages, setting the helper robots to cleaning each of them
throughly. At least, those he thought the activity wouldn't bother
the inhabitants. The Pointies were still in their mating dance
stage, so he left them alone. Same with the Silky
family.

Irvine took the disturbance personal, first
trying to open up the feed door, then to the water filtration
system where Ignacio was sure he'd escaped from before. When that
didn't work, Irvine climbed on top of the robots, trying to bite
anything he could get his mouth around.

While the robots worked inside the enclosures,
Ignacio cleaned the hard floor between them. Then the cleaning
station. Before long the warehouse was as clean as when he'd moved
in. The vacant rear enclosures sat ready for new occupants. Since
he never knew when new animals would arrive, it was for the best.
One of the surprises of working with rescued animals.

One by one the enclosure robots finished their
cleaning. The surprise was to hear one of them ringing an
alarm.

Ignacio rushed to the front enclosures, to
find the alarm coming from Irvine's pen. He should have
known.

The cleaning robot settled near the door,
displaying several metal objects in its hands. Objects that
certainly had no place in the natural setting of the enclosure.
Some were round, some half-arcs, and all made him think of one
thing. Rachel's pipes and all the plumbing problems filling her
waking hours.

The only way they could have gotten inside the
enclosure was from Irvine. How long had the newt been getting into
the pipes and coming back before Rachel first started catching
him?

"Irvine, what did you do?" Ignacio
demanded.

Irvine answered by trying to bite the robot's
arm before grabbing one of the pieces and trying to drag it back
towards the pond.

Ignacio had a time of it getting the pieces
out of the enclosure with Irvine just as determined to keep them.
Either that, or escaping.

With the pieces finally in hand and Irvine
safely contained in his enclosure, Ignacio left the warehouse. He
needed to find Rachel and hope she knew where the pieces went,
before another problem came up.

How could he find her? The ladies of her
knitter's club were long gone, and he didn't have any idea how to
find them. He thought he found the blank wall where Eddie took him
into the maintenance corridors, but he couldn't figure out how to
open it. Of course, once he got inside, how would he find his way
to Rachel? The place was a mind-boggling labyrinth.

Still, he had to try something. He hurried to
the nearest transportation platform, finding it not yet full from
the go-home business traffic. The computer helper-desk didn't offer
much help, either. The suggestion to contact the bridge or command
crew of Redpoint One might get Rachel into some sort of
trouble.

"I need to talk to a head of maintenance,"
Ignacio told the computer. "Where do I go?"

The computer flashed a symbol and a keycard
appeared in the bottom opening. He'd had something similar happen
when he'd first been setting up his program when needing to speak
to officials. The keycard meant he'd been given permission to go
into a restricted area.

He waited on the platform for a car with the
same symbol to arrive, holding the bag of parts in his other hand.
Two cars came and went before one arrived with the right
symbol.

The travel car was smaller than most, with
seating only in the front and the back empty with braces and cargo
netting. Ignacio plugged the keycard into the console in the front
and then sat down, waiting for the car to take him wherever he
should go. It was strange to have an entire car all to himself.
Even in off hours there was usually one or two other people in
every car he'd ever ridden in.

It also took longer than he expected. He must
be heading into the bowels of the station.

***

"One valve after another, one clog after
another," Rachel muttered to herself and her bot. "You would think
the internal pipe-cleaners could take care of more of this. Is
there something wrong with them?"

Her bot didn't respond, only handing her pipes
and supplies as she needed them.

The question remained, concerning Rachel the
more she worked. Some of the things she was running into shouldn't
be a problem. Her time should be spent on the big stuff.

While she wondered how she could get Redpoint
One to understand it needed to build for itself more internal
pipe-cleaners, she replaced the valve. A simple fix, of course, but
the buildup that caused it to fail should have never happened in
the first place. Maybe Arthur would have an idea on the
pipe-cleaner issue. Did he have controls available to him to ask
the station for more resources?

Two general repair robots moved in to attach
the pipes to the new valve. Rachel dropped the old one in the
recycling bin on one side of the cart.

"Another fixed, on to the next one." She
glanced at the time displayed on her ID band. "Not even close to
quitting time."

Well, on a normal day it would be. By now she
should be heading back to the maintenance platform while thinking
about plans for dinner or a bit of fun. Instead, she remained on
the job, running down the big problems, including nailing any
faults on Ring Three as they happened.

She figured another hour and then she would
take a break for a light dinner before continuing. The lasagna meal
held her for most of the afternoon, but she would still need
something more later.

Her bot circled around the supply cart to make
an unusual beep. It went around to the other side, staring down the
corridor before making another circle. The two bots working on the
pipe paused in their work to stare off in the same
direction.

Rachel froze, all her instincts telling her to
pay attention. "Another problem?"

All three bots gave another questioning chirp,
then another filled with wariness. With all the strange system
faults going on it was enough of an answer for Rachel.

She grabbed the supply cart and started
dragging it in the opposite direction. "Out we go. We'll do a
long-distance scan before going in ourselves."

Her bot didn't complain. It chirped in the
other direction once, and then shot off ahead of Rachel. Which only
increased the sensation of urgency. Rachel started trotting, then
running. With each step the sense of urgency built, pushing at her
until she was in a full run.

Only to see a bulkhead sliding close in front
of her with no chance of getting past it in time. As it closed she
heard the sound of rushing water behind her.

***

The travel car stopped at an industrial platform.
At least, that was what it looked like to Ignacio judging by the
starkness of the space. No comfortable benches for waiting people
to sit on. No decorations on the walls or floor. Only metal and the
other hard stuff so much of Redpoint One seemed to be made
of.

Ignacio stepped out of the travel car,
wondering what he should do now. He didn't even know where he'd
landed or who he should be looking for.

"Hello?" He called. As he expected, no one
answered.