Coffee Cup Dreams (A Redpoint One Romance) (9 page)

Tish took the chance to grab another cup for
herself. Usually she wouldn't have anymore after first thing in the
morning, but she wanted to make sure she was awake and ready for
whatever the day might bring. As Rachel said, the coffee was good.
Almost as good as what the bot brought to her apartment.

"Is Sector 1157 still inhabited," Tish
asked.

"So far. We continue the work today." Damien
leaned back in his chair to give her an assessing look. "Thank you
for finding the acid leak. I understand from Simon that a main
power conduit and another coolant line were almost
breached."

Tish shrugged. "I didn't do anything. Just
stumbled onto it and brought it to the bots attention. Fortunately
before it splattered on me."

Arthur entered the room from the side leading
to storage rooms. After talking quickly with the two people she
didn't know, he headed straight for her.

"Damien, need help?" He asked without looking
in his direction.

"No. Almost have it locked down. Be using a
bunch of raw materials, though," Damien said.

"Use what you need."

Arthur stopped in front of her and looked her
up and down, stopping his perusal when he reached the top of her
head. Tish put a hand up to make sure the pony tail was still
there, finding all the hair ties where they should be.

He pressed his lips together before turning to
Rachel. "Rachel, Tish Douglas. Tish, Rachel Henderkito, the head of
Redpoint One's plumbing systems. You'll be training with her
today."

Rachel gulped down a mouthful of coffee with
surprise written all over her. "I'm training today?"

"You wanted trainees," Arthur said before
turning away, running a hand through his hair.

"Does that mean I can keep her?" Rachel said
with a grin towards Tish.

"Not before I have some time with her in my
section," Damien said, handing the empty coffee cup to the bot
waiting beside him.

Tish gave Rachel a mock-glare. "I'm not a
pet."

"Hey, expect to be fought over. In a way it's
a compliment," Rachel said with an unrepentant grin.

Across the room, above the circular table at
the center of the raised platform, a series of red lights started
blinking within a holographic image of Redpoint One. With it
started several chimes at different octaves.

"Uh oh." Rachel stood up straight and taking a
big gulp of coffee.

"I wondered if we would get hit after the
damage yesterday. Tish, you're with Rachel." Damien headed towards
the table without a backward glance. "Vasiliy, you're with
me."

A blond-haired man ran out of the locker room,
fastening his tool belt as he ran. Tish knew her eyes were wide as
she watched Arthur walk away. She couldn't help it. He was a bit,
well, overwhelming, even after the stern talk she'd given herself
earlier. Even with his bad mood.

Rachel took her arm and pulled her towards the
locker room. "We best be off. By the number of alarms he'll be
calling in reinforcements to help with the repairs. We should get
out of the way."

"From the pirate attack?" Tish
asked.

"That and a smuggling operation gone wrong a
few months ago. Don't ask, it wasn't good."

Rachel opened a locker at the end and pulled
out a tool belt. Tish grabbed hers, but Rachel stopped her before
she could put it on. "Have you refilled it?"

Tish hesitated. "What do you mean?"

Rachel opened one of the pouches, revealing
small ovals filling up the internal space. "Raw materials. We carry
a variety with us so the bots can make fast small repairs. But, it
looks like these are full."

"I didn't use any yesterday. I thought they
were full of tools," Tish said. When Rachel started naming what
went into each, her mind blanked. More to memorize, and the
substances weren't organized alphabetically.

Rachel closed up the last of the pouches after
showing her the contents. "Don't worry, it will make sense
eventually. I'll help you refill right at first until you get the
hang of it. Remember: all tools are hanging on the outside, and the
pouches are raw materials."

"Finally, something I can remember easily."
Tish wrapped the belt around her and hooked it up. "We're fixing
plumbing today?"

"Yes, and there's plenty of it to fix. Water
pipes, sewer, gray water, clogs, breaks, pets."

Tish couldn't help the laugh that escaped her.
"Pets?"

Rachel nodded so seriously that Tish
suppressed another laugh. "Oh, you wouldn't believe what I find.
It's mind-blowing."

Tish wasn't so sure she wanted to start out
the day by mucking around in the sewers. Maybe she should start
storing an extra set of clothes in her locker for quick
changes.

Pulling a cart behind her filled with more
tools and covered buckets, Rachel pointed out things along the way,
mentioning where some of the corridors led. Introducing people as
they passed. All the while a yellow and white bot trailed behind
them.

But Tish shook her head as Rachel continued
the sight-seeing spiel. "There is no way I'm going to be able to
remember all this. I'm not sure I can find my way back to my room
from the Maintenance Platform without calling a bot to lead
me."

Rachel reached back to her ponytail and
wrapped her hair in a knot and stuck a long pin through it. "You'll
get it with time. If you get lost and there isn't a bot around just
ask the computer for help."

"The computer no one can
understand?"

"We can understand. A little bit. More
important, it understands you." She pointed to a black screen on
the wall with a dark blue frame around it. "Just activate and tell
it where you need to go. A little bot will come out and take you
there."

Tish nodded slowly, eyeing the blank screen.
"Sounds easy enough."

Her voice must have held some of her
misgivings because Rachel grinned at her.

"Like this." Rachel walked up to the pad and
touched it. "Computer, how do I get to section Sigma 1782
Maintenance Shaft 82?"

The screen flashed to life. Garbled words came
from it along with a map appearing. Below the screen on the floor a
small flap opened in the wall.

A miniature version of the bots appeared,
smaller than the big ones, but much bigger than the ladybug
versions. A little light rose up from a small opening on its back
and started blinking red. It whistled at them and circled their
feet before taking off down the corridor.

"And don't worry about them being too fast. It
will wait for you or come back if it realizes you aren't close
behind. Cute thing, isn't it?" Rachel give her a grin before
following the bot.

The way it zigzagged down the corridor
whistling to itself had her grinning. She looked down at the bot
following Rachel. "I've never seen this configuration of robot
before coming to Redpoint One. Who builds them?"

"No one. They belong to the space
station."

Tish's steps faltered. She stared down at the
bot. What had looked so innocent, even cute, suddenly had an
ominous tone. One of the eyestalks swiveled around to stare
straight at her.

The dark shadows along the maintenance
corridors took on shapes and connotations she didn't like. Why
couldn't the place be brightly lit?

She shook herself. Time to stop thinking about
that movie.

Through maintenance corridors and the brighter
common public corridors, up and down levels. Tish had a feeling she
would be using the computer and its little guiding-bots a lot. How
could anyone memorize the place? It seemed to go on
forever.

The bot stopped and whirled around in close
circles with the red light turning a solid red. It whistled up and
down twice. The moment they caught up with it the bot turned and
shot into a small opening in the wall, a flap coming down behind
it.

"That means we're here?" Tish asked, staring
down at where the bot disappeared.

"You got it. Ready to work?"

"That's why I'm here."

"Good girl!" Rachel gestured to the yellow and
white bot still tailing behind them. "Find the problem,
please."

The bot beeped and moved forward. It rose off
the floor, beams of light coming from the eyestalks. The beams went
up and down the pipes in the wall until it stopped to hover in just
one spot.

"What does that mean?" Tish asked.

"That means that is where the problem is." She
took out a small tube from her belt. The top rolled out with what
looked like flex-paper. As Rachel passed it over the tube the
flex-paper displayed a multi-colored version of the pipe it faced.
In one spot red filled the pipe. "And that confirms it. We have a
nice big clog of something simple flushing of the system can't take
care of."

"I have a feeling I don't want to know what it
is," Tish said, wondering if she was going to regret having such a
big breakfast.

"Most times, no. Ready for your first repair?"
Rachel asked with a wicked grin.

She really wanted to say no, but she forced
herself to nod.

CHAPTER EIGHT

A SMALL BOT appeared, coming to hover over a joint, a small
tool snaking out from a hole appearing in its front. A spark of
light against the seam between the joint and the pipe
appeared.

Rachel grabbed something from her belt and
unhinged a long narrow tool with a hook at the end. "Time to get
dirty. Go to the end of the corridor and turn off the main
valve."

Tish started to remind her she had no idea
where the valve might be located when several more bots converged
on them. One rose to shine a light further down the pipe where it
turned into a nook in the wall. Several started working on another
joint, sparks flying into the corridor. Rachel started working on
the seam, oblivious to the new company.

Another bot bumped into her leg. Tish took a
step back and it sat down in the place she'd been standing. A line
appeared across its back and the left side flipped down. Several
arms with different tools came out. She backed up another step as
it moved forward to extend the arms into the nook.

"Come on, Tish. Get a move on." Rachel said,
banging on the pipe with the edge of her tool before gesturing back
the way they'd come. "Shut down the valve before we flood the
corridor."

Tish turned around and nearly tripped over
another bot. It whistled up at her and circled her legs before
moving to join the others.

She put a hand on the wall to help keep her
balance, and then snatched it back when she found the pipe under
her hand hot. A bot zipped past, making a series of beeps and
clicks at her, sounding way too much like it was complaining or
chastising her.

Neither of which she appreciated. Tish glared
down at the bot. "Hey, stop complaining. You want me to help, then
help me find the valve."

The bot whistled up at her and turned down the
corridor. Tish stepped over a smaller bot arriving in order to
follow. The bot stopped at a juncture in the corridors, whistling
up at her.

But she had no idea what she should be looking
for. The only things in front of her were the regular station pipes
and conduits with a few boxy shapes rising between the twists and
turns.

The bot rose up and shone a light on a smooth
block with several complex geometric shapes on the surface. Shapes
that meant nothing to her other than perhaps as a bit of art or
decoration.

Wait, one of the shapes reminded her of one of
the tools hanging from her belt.

She reached down and found the thin tool about
as long as her longest finger. The end flared out into a hexagon,
at the end of which was one of the shapes. But it didn't look
right.

She twirled the tool in her hand while
studying the block on the wall. She needed to do something with one
of the shapes, but which one?

She looked back down at the tool. In her
twirling the shape at the end had changed. She played with the
handle, finding it twisted half-way down, and with each twist the
shape at the end changed.