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.
In the silence he thought he heard voices. Investigating the wide corridors leading off the platform he found one where he thought the sound was coming through stronger than the others. With no other clues, he headed down it.
It wasn't long before he found a large circular room with other rooms and corridors branching off it in all directions. A circular raised platform filled the middle, on top of which sat consoles and chairs. The railing running around the edge of the raised platform broke in several places with a single step leading down to the ground floor.
He recognized the man studying a hologram hovering over a circular table in the very middle of the platform.
"Arthur Getty," Ignacio called as he stepped into the room.
Arthur glanced towards him before returning his attention back to the hologram. "I'm sorry, but I have no time for visitors today. I'm dealing with an emergency right now."
"Does it have to do with a plumbing system near the upcoming pet show?" Ignacio asked, his hand tightening on the bag in his hand.
Arthur looked up, his attention completely on him. "Yes. How did you know?"
He lifted the bag. "One of my newts has been getting into the pipes. I just found these in his enclosure while giving it a thorough cleaning."
Arthur came to the edge of the platform to investigate the contents of the bag. He shook the bag while looking inside before shaking his head. "A few fittings. It shouldn't cause what just happened."
"Still no answer," a male voice said from Arthur's wrist.
Arthur dropped the bag on the top of a console and returned to the hologram, lifting his wrist before saying, "I'm not getting anything up here, either. It's like she literally dropped out of the station."
Somehow Ignacio knew they were talking about Rachel. Knew it for a certainty right to his bones. A few of the repair bots joined him at the edge of the platform, their eyes bobbing on eyestalks as they watched Arthur and the hologram.
"I'm calling out a full search party. Tish, I need you in the area as fast as you can. We need to know if something is wrong with Redpoint One's upper systems," Arthur said.
"I'll help," Ignacio called out. "Just tell me what area to search."
Arthur switched off the hologram, moving to step off the platform. "Leave this to those of us who know the area. We're intimately familiar with the station."
Ignacio pointed to a blue and gray robot that looked friendly. "One of the bots can come with me. I won't get lost. I want to help."
"Sorry, leave this to us."
Ignacio watched him heading to the door, his throat closing up. He called out after him, "I won't not be there. Not again."
Arthur stopped at the door, the bot trailing after him stopping as well. "What?"
"My first wife. I wasn't there for her. I will be there for Rachel," Ignacio said. He took in a deep breath and joined Arthur. "I'll follow you if I have to."
"No need. It seems the bots agree you should be there." Arthur pointed to his feet.
Ignacio looked down to find the blue and gray bot staring up at him, hovering right at his feet. Somehow, he felt better knowing it was there.
"Follow me. We're rendezvousing with others to organize the search. I'll explain on the way," Arthur said.
Ignacio was right on his heels as they headed back to the travel platform.
***
The water was filling the corridor fast. Rachel had long since left the supply cart behind. It could take care of itself. She needed to take care of her own neck.
And she was starting to get worried about it. The water already came up over the tops of her boots, making it hard to move very fast. Every door and corridor she tried wouldn't open, no matter what she or the other bots tried. Tools didn't make a difference either. To make matters worse, no one answered the calls she tried to make with her ID band.
"Come on, Redpoint! Time to open," Rachel yelled, pounding on another bulkhead. Which didn't make a difference, either.
She felt horrible in the head. Something felt wrong in this whole section. It was as if she couldn't hear Redpoint One at all. Even the bots were upset. All three stuck right close to her, as if looking to her for guidance. She didn't know what to tell them, other than she wanted out, too, and for a return of the soft mental touch of Redpoint One.
Now that she was without it, she realized how much she'd come to like it since arriving. Redpoint One was home, and the mental touch made her feel welcome. Now she couldn't feel anything other than a cold emptiness.
The bots grew more vocal in their worry, with even the two strange bots huddling next to her, looking for reassurance.
"We need a way out. Find a way out," Rachel said to them.
Usually, once they knew what she wanted, they did it. Took the lead, gave some indication of direction, but they didn't move away from her to lead the way.
Yet, the water continued rising.