IGNACIO STAYED CLOSE to Arthur, letting the man lead them to the problem area. They arrived to other maintenance engineers already congregating. It lifted his heart to see so many would be joining in the search to find Rachel, but it made his heart sink to realize something was going on none of them understood.
"Any clues at all," the man called Damien asked.
"She's not showing up on any internal sensors," Arthur said. "This is the general area she was last seen in. We do a manual search from this point on."
Arthur passed out hand scanners and gave several teams general search locations. Ignacio took one of the last scanners, figuring out how to turn it on by himself. A simple scanner from the looks of it, and definitely human-made and not a construct of the station. After a few tries he felt comfortable with the interface, succeeding in getting it to pick up everyone around him.
"Okay, everyone head out, and stay together with your partner," Arthur said. "I don't want anyone else getting lost. Keep your eyes open, trust your instincts, and trust your bots."
Ignacio looked up, realizing he'd missed some of the instructions as he'd tried to figure out the scanner. Had he been assigned to a partner and missed it?
Among the pairs leaving into the maze of corridors, a man of medium build with blond hair waved at him. "Let's get going."
Ignacio rushed to join him. "You're my search partner?"
"You got it. Vasiliy Lukin," the man said with a short wave of the hand before turning into the corridors.
"Ignacio Manetti."
"You know our Rachel?" Vasiliy asked as the corridor started narrowing.
"We're dating," Ignacio said, wishing he could say more than that. Thanks to him and his cowardly heart, they were barely dating at all. If not for the interfering Naughty Knitter's Club, they wouldn't have even had their romantic lasagna meal in the middle of the maintenance corridors.
Vasiliy stopped in the process of turning into a new corridor. "Wait, are you the one with the newts and the oil?"
The comment about the oil threw Ignacio until he remembered the attempt to get Irvine out of the pipes and back into his enclosure. "Sorry to say, yes, that was me. Or rather, Irvine."
Vasiliy gave a short laugh. "If we weren't in the middle of this, I would ask you to explain it in more detail. As it is, we need to find a direction."
Ignacio glanced back the way they'd come, to find two bots behind him, including the blue and gray bot. "You don't know?"
"I know we're supposed to search this general area, but not where Rachel might be. Bot, any ideas?" The white bot chirped a question, but didn't move. Vasiliy looked down the corridor he'd been about to head down. "There lays the problem."
"Shouldn't we start a basic search pattern?" Ignacio asked.
"Sure, we can do that," Vasiliy said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Honestly, I'm used to the bots knowing where a problem is, or getting a sense or instinct of where to start. I'm not getting anything right now. How about you?"
Ignacio looked up and down the corridors, as well. There wasn't much to see. Only an endless expanse of pipes, conduits, and control panels. A chaotic spaghetti that made no sense at all. Unlike the others, he didn't possess any instinct or knowledge of the layout of the internal workings of the station.
"I guess something is better than nothing," Ignacio said, picking one corridor.
The corridor didn't hold any hidden pockets of anywhere a person could disappear in. The more they searched, the more his heart sank until it felt like a rock. With a station as big as Redpoint One they could look for a lifetime and still not inspect all of it.
"I'm still not getting anything," Vasiliy said, glaring down the corridors. "I hate this."
"Maybe we should go up or down a level and try this general area again?" Ignacio asked.
"It's worth a try. There should be a ladder in this direction," Vasiliy said, pointing down a side corridor.
Up another level and they started the search all over again with the two bots in tow. Ignacio couldn't shake the feeling of something bad happening and time was of the essence. They weren't moving fast enough.
He stopped at a juncture branching off in five directions, remembering Arthur's warning to always trust the bots instincts. He asked the bot trailing him, "Do you know where Rachel is? What direction?"
The bot circled around his feet, as if not knowing where to go. At least he guessed that was what it meant. It was hard to tell without them speaking.
"If they knew, they would be in front of us, not behind," Vasiliy said. "I'm still not getting anything. How about you?"
"Still nothing."
Ignacio didn't want to say anything more than that. He knew his memories and emotions about what happened to his dead wife were coloring his reaction now. He didn't like it. He needed to be clear headed at the moment, and the memories were interfering. Somehow, they needed to find Rachel, and fast.
He picked a corridor at random but stopped shortly. This was ridiculous. If Rachel wasn't answering calls and the station and bots couldn't pick her up, then it meant she wasn't in a usual place, such as a corridor.
They could walk right by her without knowing. His mind flashed on the horror movie released last spring. The scene of the moving walls and corridors flashed through his head. Could they really move? Was that part of the kernel of truth among all the lies in the movie?
The blue and gray bot settled at his feet and stared up at him.
"We need to find a way to detect when she's near," he told the bot, hoping it could understand him. He waved the simple scanner in his hands. "I don't think this is going to do it. If Redpoint One can't sense her, why would this?"
"Too bad the sensors of one of the ships going through the decontamination tub can't help," Vasiliy said, stopping next to them.
"Oh, let me guess. Redpoint One doesn't allow them to see inside?" Ignacio said.
"It's one of the reasons pirates have never been able to take the station. They don't have the floor plans with which to plan the attack." Vasiliy paused. "Well, one of the reasons."
Ignacio was beginning to think he knew of the other reason. Perhaps some of the stories about moving walls might be true.
The blue and gray bot emitted a curious chirp and then a sad long beep. The eyestalks turned to look behind them and then back up at him. The bot settled to the floor, waiting.
Not the sort of answer he wanted. "Right. None of us have an answer. I get it."
The bot gave a subdued beep that faded out, in a way that reminded him of the noises Irvine made. Ah, Irvine. He couldn't blame the trouble-making newt this time.
With the thought, several things connected in his head. How Rachel's bot hated Irvine. Irvine hating Rachel. Didn't Paul mention Irvine hissed when they came back from the date?
The answer was so ridiculous, but perfect all at the same time.
"Bot, get me back to my warehouse as fast as possible. I think I have the answer," Ignacio said.
"You're giving up?" Vasiliy asked.
The bot whistled at him in a questioning tone again. Rachel was right. Bots should have names. "I'm not giving up. I have an idea. You. Wait, I'm calling you Trident for now. Trident, please take me home."
The bot gave one more chirp and took off back the way they'd come so fast Ignacio broke into a jog to keep up. At first, he thought Vasiliy had stayed to continue the search, but then heard him running behind them.
He thought it would take a while to get back home, as it seemed like they'd been moving through the corridors forever. Yet, they popped out of the hidden wall Eddie had used in no time.
Knowing where they were, he ran past the bot and to his warehouse. The bot paused at the front door while Ignacio continued inside and into the animal side.
Vasiliy followed him, stopping at the front while Ignacio continued to the back where he pulled out a carrier, making sure the tray in the bottom was filled with plenty of water. "Rachel wasn't kidding. You really do breed newts."
"And salamanders," Ignacio said, heading back up the aisle.
Irvine waited for him, as if sensing Ignacio had come back just for him. Catching him was another matter. Irvine wanted to explore on his own, not get put into a carrier.
Usually, the cleaning bot was enough to catch a newt and put him in a carrier. He should have known it wouldn't be so easy while in the midst of an emergency. Between himself and the cleaning robot, they cornered Irvine against a rock and Ignacio shooed him into the carrier.
Irvine hissed at him before settling in the pan of water in the middle.
"Keep the hiss for when it means something," Ignacio told him.
Vasiliy crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes going from Ignacio to the carrier, and back again. "What are we doing now?"
Ignacio continued out of the warehouse, knowing the man would follow. "Now we head back and search again. Trident, take us back where we stopped the search."