SAMPLE - ONCE UPON A PET SHOW (A REDPOINT ONE ROMANCE)

 

Does love stand a chance among alien pets and intrigues?

Vallory Schist does not care about winning a prize at Redpoint One's annual Exotic Pet show. She must quickly find her rare Etrucian Daubpups a new habitat, and an attraction to Damien cannot get in the way.

Failing life-support systems at both the show and station keep engineer Damien Lysander busier than ever. Then he encounters Vallory and her heat-sensitive daubpups... and the fireworks when they are together.

Add into the mix the nosy Naughty Knitter's Club, interfering repair bots, a series of pet-nappings, and daubpups who will not stay in their cages...

How can love not bloom?

Available now!

***

Eight, nine, ten… wait…

Oh no. Only ten.

Vallory Schist recounted the rounded sleeping forms of the Etrucian daubpups in the clear solid-sided cage. Each a different mix of colors, each with their thick banded tail wrapped around their bodies, their feet and nose tucked in.

She frantically started a visual search of the area, hoping the eleventh hadn't strayed too far. Could it be back on the passenger spaceliner, or lost somewhere on the docks of Redpoint One? She looked helplessly across the busy docks. Robots and small transports running along invisible lanes above their heads, with others moving more slowly along lanes marked on the floor with bright glowing-yellow lines.

People, families, freight, transports, and robots everywhere. Hundreds of them, and this was only the one dock. Other docks just as busy lay nearby across several levels. How would she find a lost daubpup in all of this?

"We'll have a transporter here soon," the black-haired deck-hand who had helped her off-load the big clear-sided cage said. He looked down at the large watch on his wrist. "They were delayed getting another cage down to the pet show."

"Understandable, considering it starts tomorrow," Vallory said, not really thinking about her words. They didn't matter. The delay meant she had a little more time to find her stray daubpup. It must be in the cage during customs check-in. How would she explain it to the show officials or judges when it showing up later?

Or if it showed up. If the ship left with her daubpup on it, who knew if she would ever track it down. She even knew which one it was. Penny, named after her copper-colored fur, had been notoriously antsy lately, to the point the other daubpups growled at her. No wonder the rest of them slept so hard. The trouble-maker wasn't with the group.

A long thick pink and copper-colored banded tail flicked out from behind one of the beat-up suitcases sitting on a nearby hovering luggage-sled. The tip of it twitched as it traveled across. It turned, going in the other direction, the fine fur flowing with the switch in direction. Penny, on one of her exploration forays.

Once certain that the deck-hand was busy with his wrist communicator, Vallory stepped to the side and reached past the suitcases. Her hands met with soft baby-fine fur. She lifted the squirming daubpup out from behind even as Penny attempted to twist out of her hands in order to continue her exploring. Big slanted eyes narrowed as one of her fingered paws caught against Vallory's shirt.

"Be good. Today is an important day," Vallory whispered to Penny as she stepped back to the cage. She didn't know if the daubpups could understand anything she said. Most likely no more than a dog or a cat, in any case, but she still talked to them. Sometimes they appeared to understand her.

Like now. Penny stopped twisting and turning to crane her head back towards her to sniff at her with a petite front nose at the end of a short snout. Vallory knew that look. She was being tolerated.

So long as that toleration meant Penny stayed in the cage at least through the end of Redpoint One's Annual Exotic Pet Show. Until she could talk to a few people attending in hopes of finding out what she needed.

No, finding what the daubpups needed.

Vallory cracked open the cage door, a rush of cooler air coming out. Good. The cage environmental systems were working well. With Penny inside, she closed the door and straightened just as the deck-hand looked up.

"Roy is almost here. Have everything?" he asked.

"Yes, everything is here," Vallory said, clasping her hands behind her back.

Inside the cage, all the daubpups woke up en-mass, all looking back at her. Then they moved to the edges of the cage to watch the dock activity. Of the people and small hovering sleds and vehicles moving back and forth.

Maybe she should have covered the cage. If they found something interesting they might all decide to escape like Penny just did. Vallory's stomach roiled at that thought. A worry she'd carried with her for the entire flight to Redpoint One.

Please. Just a little longer. A few days, she silently pleaded with the daubpups.

***

"Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance)" is available at online retailers everywhere.