IGNACIO COULDN'T RUN while carrying Irvine, having to content himself with a fast walk. Trident beeped and chirped at him in annoyance despite Ignacio telling it he couldn't move faster. He didn't like moving slow, either. It took much too long to get back to where they'd stopped searching.
Once they did arrive, Ignacio kept moving as fast as he dared. Irvine watched the scenery from amid the water, apparently unconcerned. Probably happy. Irvine liked new vistas, to judge by his pipe exploration. To walk the corridors was rather boring.
"What are we expecting to happen?" Vasiliy said as he trailed behind.
"Irvine hates Rachel," Ignacio said.
"You think Irvine will be able to sense what we can't and our sensors can't?"
"It's worth a try. I haven't heard anyone over the ID bracelets say they've had any success."
The lack of success seriously worried Ignacio. So many people searching, and not a sign of Rachel anywhere? They knew Rachel's last location. Someone should have found someone, somewhere.
Up and down corridors they went with Trident sometimes leading the way, but leaving Ignacio to choose new directions at the junctures. He wished it wouldn't. He didn't trust his instincts in the corridors. In fact, if he didn't have the bot and Vasiliy with him, he would be seriously worried about being hopelessly lost.
Large corridors, small corridors, some barely large enough for him to get Irvine's carrier through. He was completely turned around, tired, and achy, but he didn't stop. He wouldn't stop until someone found Rachel.
Then came a small hiss.
Ignacio stopped, looking down. The bot stopped and turned to stare at Irvine. From the direction Irvine faced, they knew where to head. The big problem came from the long solid wall of pipes several layers deep. Not one door intersected the pipes in either direction, allowing them an easy way to get through.
He moved towards the wall and the hissing grew louder.
"He's hissing," Vasiliy said.
"I know. She's here. Somewhere."
As if to reinforce it, Irvine hissed at the wall again.
Vasiliy lifted his ID band. "Boss, we might have found Rachel's general location."
"We'll find you. Don't move," Arthur answered back.
Ignacio did move. He walked up and down the corridor until he came as close to Rachel as he could get. At least, according to his newt compass.
Arthur and Damien arrived first. When Ignacio pointed to the wall and told them they would find Rachel on the other side, Arthur asked, "Why do you think she's here?"
"Would you believe a newt led us?" Vasiliy asked, pointing at Ignacio's carrier.
Arthur and Damien both stared at him in shock. Arthur asked, "You're telling me you found Rachel with the help of a newt?"
"A newt who detests her," Ignacio said. "Trust me. Rachel is nearby."
"Your pet hates your date. Not good," Damien muttered as he examined the wall.
"Not a pet. He'll be transferred to a breeding program once his isolation period is finished," Ignacio automatically corrected. "Any idea what is on the other side of this wall or how to get there?"
"There used to be a door here," Arthur said, studying the same wall.
"I'm getting the same sensation. Why would it move now?" Damien demanded. "Notice the lights closest to the wall are out?"
"None of the smaller repair bots anywhere along the wall, either," Vasiliy said.
"Listen," Arthur said sharply.
All four of them froze along with the bots around them, staring at the wall. Ignacio couldn't figure out what he meant. He couldn't hear anything other than Irvine's occasional hissing.
"I've never sensed that before," Damien finally said.
"Nor I." Arthur raised his ID band. "Tish, we need you here ASAP."
"On my way," a female voice said.
"I still don't hear anything," Ignacio said. "What's wrong?"
Two other people arrived. Arthur turned to set them to start searching all corridors around the area for any system faults. Damien answered, "Are you aware there is a consciousness to Redpoint One?"
"Yes. Several animals can sense it and respond to it in a positive manner, making Redpoint One a prime breeding place for several endangered species," Ignacio answered, earning a look of surprise from Damien. "Plus, I've been around a while. You hear things."
"Right. Well, right now, it is not present in this area," Damien said, gesturing towards the wall.
Ignacio didn't like the sound of that. Nor that Rachel might be trapped somewhere in the middle of it. A place where once a door led inside, a door no longer there.
He stepped out of the way as even more people arrived along with a small army of bots. He felt so helpless watching and not being able to do anything. Irvine splashed around in his water, unconcerned at the excitement and worry around them.
A woman with light brown hair in a ponytail with holographic hair ties arrived with three bots in tow. Each bot also sported a holographic hair tie of a different color on their eyestalks. It must be Tish, the one Rachel mentioned named her bots after colors.
Tish settled at the end of the corridor, intent on a repair. Her three bots crowded around her feet and up on the wall near where she worked. Before long several of the lights closest to the wall blinked on. A small success, but one Ignacio was happy to see. Now, if only they could get past the wall.
Tish returned to Arthur. "I didn't see anything else to repair. I can't figure out what is going on around here. It's as if this area has disappeared according to Redpoint One. It doesn't even sense it."
Not the kind of news Ignacio wanted to hear. He swallowed hard. They had to figure out how to get past the wall. If they couldn't go straight forward, then they would simply have to get more sneaky about it, just like Irvine when he decided he wanted to escape.
"What about above or below?" Ignacio asked.
"We do both, plus surround," Arthur said. "Maybe we'll get lucky and find a different entry into the area.
Which started another search. The maintenance crews spread out once again, trying to find a way inside. The followups on the ID bands increased as each person checked in on what they found.
Vasiliy headed out with another engineer to test security systems, so Ignacio chose to follow Tish as she headed for the next level up. Somehow it felt like the right direction to head in, and he noticed the maintenance crew put a lot of trust in the gut instincts. It flew in the face of his logical science mind, but it if worked, it worked.
The direction also got Irvine's attention once they moved back in the general area after climbing a narrow ladder. Irvine climbed up the wire mesh at the front of the carrier and hissed at the wall.
Tish looked down at him, startled. Her bots mirrored her reaction. "What is that about?"
"Irvine doesn't like Rachel," Ignacio said.
She grinned. "Is this the infamous newt?"
"The one and only. Rachel is nearby. Irvine always seems to know. Don't ask me how."
"Good enough for me. Look, over there." Tish took off running with three bots trailing her.
Ignacio followed more slowly, trying not to jolt a hissing Irvine. He came to a stop next to a large bulkhead which Tish was already working on the controls for. An even better clue came from an Irvine hissing so much Ignacio thought he would make himself hoarse.
He heard Arthur's voice coming from her band. "I'm on my way up."
Ignacio waited in front of the tall doors blocking off the corridor, waiting for them to open. Tish continued to work at the controls, but the doors didn't move.
He looked over at her. "Why isn't it opening?"
"Good question." Tish banged on it with her fist. "It's working as far as I can tell, but I can't get it to do anything."
Arthur appeared, trying the same console. "We found a locked bulkhead. What about this one?"
Tish shook her head. "Won't work. I think the problem extends multiple levels."
"I wonder how many systems it's impacting?" Arthur stopped working on the console, looking up at the ceiling of the corridor. "Going up helped before, let's try it again."
Only the new level wasn't as easy to move around in. The corridors were too narrow to allow two people to walk side by side, with a low ceiling that threatened to grow even lower if they went too much further. Already, it brushed at the top of Ignacio's hair. Tish led the way, but she kept looking back to watch for Irvine's reaction.
"I'll tell you when we get close," Ignacio said, concerned she might hit her head against a pipe if she didn't pay attention to where she was going.
"All this feels wrong. I'm a nervous wreck," Tish said.
She wasn't the only one.
***
Rachel's fingers ached from grasping the pipes. The bots around her helped prop her up in the small air-pocket at the top of one of the enclosed corridors, but even it was shrinking fast.
She'd never heard of anyone having this problem. Get trapped in a corridor? That just didn't happen other than in bad horror movies, and no way did she want to be the first to prove such a rumor wrong.
She'd found an emergency hatch access, but it was sealed up tight no matter what her or the bots attacked it with. What good was an emergency hatch if it didn't open? What a depressing thought. A maintenance engineer done in by bad maintenance on an emergency hatch.
Not really fair. All the engineers tried hard. There was simply too much of Redpoint One and too few of them. A simple numbers game, and today she came out on the losing end of it.
At least she'd shared a nice meal with Ignacio. She wanted a lot more, including a full life right into geezerhood, but thanks to the Naughty Knitter's Club she'd been allowed to enjoy a few last moments with Ignacio.
She caught herself, telling herself out loud, "What horrible thinking."
She needed to think positive. She would get out of this. She would live to see Ignacio again for another date. She wouldn't even complain at hissing Irvine. If she found him in a pipe, she would fish him out and use it as an excuse to see Ignacio for a few more minutes in the middle of hectic days.
Her bot floated to the surface of the water with another tool from her submerged supply cart. She averted her eyes as a welding flame erupted from the end of one of the arms, aimed at the escape hatch.
Rachel concentrated on breathing slowly, using as little of the remaining oxygen as she could. Not easy when the air started to stink thanks to the welding. Okay, she would be glad for clean air, too. Dry skin. Solid ground. All those little things people took for granted.
She heard a muffled crack. A few bubbles came to the surface and popped, bringing with them a new smell.
Rachel reached up to pound on the surface of the hatch with a wrench. So close, and now escaped life-support coolant from a broken pipe somewhere below her was about to kill her. She tried not to panic as more bubbles rose around her.
She rested a moment before raising the wrench again. Her bot worked at the seals around the hatch with the welder as she banged.
"Do whatever you need to," Rachel told it. "I don't have much time left."
Her bot chirped while the two bots still underwater pushed her a little higher into the air pocket. The only small consolation about the new problem was that once the fumes from the coolant overwhelmed her she would probably drown without feeling any pain. As consolations went, she found it a pretty poor one.
A muffled bang echoed through the small space. Rachel looked up, confused. Did she hit the hatch again and forgot about it? Oh great, the fumes were already getting to her.
Then it came again. Regular taps on the hatch.
Rachel banged again, and the bangs were precisely repeated back to her.
So close. Someone knew she was in here. She must find a way to keep going until someone could get the hatch open.