Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) (11 page)

VALLORY SLAPPED HER hand over her nose. She
couldn't help it. Horrible smell.

Not quite sewer, not quite garbage, not quite
volcanic emissions. It was as if someone had taken the worst of all
of them, mixed it together, and sprayed it into the air.

The stink made her want to run out of the
building. As fast as she could, to do anything to get away from it.
From the sounds of the people and animals around them, she wasn't
the only one.

"What is that?" Vallory demanded.

Damien's face held a disgusted and weary
expression, one that made her want to give him a hug in comfort.
Only, she would have to take her hand down to do it properly, and
no way was she going to do that.

"We aren't sure. The station is having
issues," Damien said.

"You said that this morning." Right before she
nearly became trapped in a lonely isolated part of the station. She
couldn't help the shiver that went through her at the
thought.

The aisles quickly started emptying as people
fled the area. Exhibitors shouted for the judges. Judges shouted
for security. Show managers hovered near their pets, unwilling to
leave yet, but looking ready to the moment any excuse came
along.

"I'm sorry. I need to help deal with this,"
Damien said, taking a step back.

Vallory shooed him away with her free hand.
"Do it. The sooner the better."

From the whistle of his bot, it sounded like
it agreed.

"Good luck with the show," Damien said. He
lifted his wrist, saying towards it as he walked back to the
service aisle behind her enclosure, "The smell is back, and this
time it has hit the pet show."

Yes, the show. In a way she was glad for the
interruption the stench caused. She didn't know how she was going
to answer his one question. Other than just tell him
outright?

A simple enough answer: she was having
meetings on behalf of the daubpups. No real reason to keep it
secret, not now that her little darlings were already in the show.
They couldn't be kicked out now.

She turned back to take a look at the
daubpups. Maybe she should get Penny and the baby out of
here.

Several of the daubpups played with the ball,
although not as energetically as before. Three others chased each
other along the fake tree limbs angled out from the walls of the
enclosure. In the back she could see others, including Penny,
curled up in their nests. With Penny lay the new baby, apparently
asleep next to its mother, and completely ignored by the other
daubpups.

Good, one thing to ease her mind. It appeared
the baby was quite safe with the rest of the group. Just as well.
She didn't have a proper place to isolate mother and baby,
anyway.

She stood to the side watching them as the
crowds came and went. Her worry over the new mother and baby
overwhelmed even her nose. Yes, it still stunk, and people and
animals still complained. But, her crew? Happy and settled
inside.

The relief was so intense and lasted so long
that she didn't realize the moment the smell ended. What tipped her
off that something was different was the increased
crowd.

Her lips curved up into a smile. Damien must
have found the problem. He would. He knew his job.

A frown replaced the smile. So sure, was she?
She hardly knew him. Hardly knew the station, and the only other
maintenance person she'd met was Damien's trainee. Not exactly a
wide sampling of the large crew it must take to keep a station like
this going.

But, her mind had settled on it. Her Damien
did the fixing.

Neon stopped to put a paw up on the front
enclosure wall right next to her, giving her a yip. With a flick of
her thick banded tail, she turned and tackled Frumpmuffin. The two
went rolling across the enclosure, much to the delight of several
observers.

Penny and her new baby woke and started
nuzzling each other. When Penny turned to grooming her fur, the
baby caught sight of a nearby tree limb. Adorable how both ears
cocked forward towards it. Even more adorable how it crawled
through the jungle of dried grass and straw to get to
it.

The baby started climbing. The response of the
other daubpups was unexpected. They jumped up and down from limb to
limb, then to the ground, and then back up again as the baby
climbed higher. As if excited about the little one's
progress.

Vallory felt the same. Active, climbing, the
group having accepted it? Fantastic. She brought out her pocket
computer and started documenting the behavior.

The sounds of the crowd receded as she
concentrated on what she loved: observing the daubpups just being
themselves. They loved fun. They loved each other, no matter how
they might wrestle.

No, the logical and analytical side told
herself. She was attaching human emotions to the little creatures.
The emotional side said she didn't care. It kept her interested.
And they acted loving. Attentive to the others, sensitive when one
wasn't feeling well, shared food and other resources, groomed each
other. Very social animals who showed a lot of attention to each
other.

And now those traits were turned to the new
arrival among them. The baby, in turn, appeared to love it. It
nuzzled up to Neon before tackling the next branch.

There was that word again. Love. Vallory gave
an audible sigh as she entered another set of notes into the
computer. The daubpups were getting more action in that direction
than she was.

Although, hard to meet the man of her dreams
when her job took her into the wilderness so much. Maybe after this
she should look for a position with a nature reserve where she
could live closer to other humans. Maybe a small
community.

In the midst of her feeling sorry for herself,
her mind threw up an image. Of green eyes that could shift from
gray-green to almost emerald. Spiky dark-brown hair. Even in the
mental image he exuded that calm authority and control she'd sensed
the first time they'd met. A small tilted smile told her a quirky
sense of humor lurked below the surface.

The image merged with one earlier today. Of
him dealing with Mr. Pyman while the baby nuzzled and licked his
ear. Her fury at the accusations had warred with the desire to
laugh at the sight of the muscular body being used as a climbing
tree by a colorful baby daubpup.

He hadn't minded. Not a bit. She'd expected
him to. Most macho men would have been horrified. When she asked
him to let the baby continue, he did. He didn't remove it,
continued on as if it weren't there, letting Vallory do
it.

Well, not continued as if it weren't there.
He'd held still for the most part, his body tense. As if afraid to
hurt it or make it fall?

And, he'd taken her side in the argument. He
hardly knew her, and he'd taken her side.

She blew a strand of hair away from her nose,
hoping to also cool a suddenly hot face. She could be in trouble if
this continued. It was also a distraction she didn't need right
now. Not with the creatures on the other side of the barrier
relying on her. The addition of the baby increased the pressure.
She now knew they could reproduce. The need to find them a
permanent home increased, its weight on her shoulders increasing
until she thought she might collapse.

"The first day of the Redpoint One Exotic Pet
Show is now concluded," a woman's voice said from the speakers
overhead. Vallory jerked her attention away from the daubpups to
look around her in confusion. "The show will reopen tomorrow
morning at seven. We hope to see you here. Thank you."

When did the aisles get so clear? She'd been
standing there all afternoon?

The aches that suddenly appeared now that her
concentration had been broken told her that she had. She'd done it
again. Like when out in the field, she became so all-consumed in
her observations and recordings that time would pass in the blink
of an eye. She would come out of it to find the sky darkening and
her muscles so tight and aching that she could barely pull herself
upright to start walking towards home.

Only this time, she'd done it in the middle of
a crowded pet show. That was a first.

She rubbed her lower back with one hand while
flexing the other arm, trying to get both to relax. Two security
guards walked down the aisled, stopping to talk to each exhibitor.
Good. Nice to see security out in force, especially after so many
pets disappeared.

She turned to another task. Cleaning out the
water and refilling it. Replacing some of the dried grass. Grabbing
the ball, despite the daubpup complaints.

"You can play with it another day. I don't
want you to get tired of it," she told them as she headed back
towards the door.

She slipped out just in time to hear one of
the security guards say to Ms. Mishely, "We're clearing out all the
buildings within the next half hour and setting up a perimeter. Let
the show official know if you need any help preparing your pets for
the night."

Good. Hopefully they would have an uneventful
night, and she wouldn't walk back into the building to more
accusations. Especially considering she had another meeting the
next morning shortly after the show started. Fortunately for that
one, she would be meeting the expert here inside the show grounds
in the food court.

She came out from behind the enclosure after
putting the ball away in the locked container she stored there. The
security guards were nearly to her, but they weren't what made her
freeze.

Mr. Pyman stalked down the aisle in her
direction. Maybe not at her, as his enclosure was right next to
hers. It didn't matter. With her achy muscles, hurting feet, and a
stomach and headache from not eating anything for so long, she was
in no mood to deal with him.

Vallory turned away and put a hand on the
clear front of the enclosure. "Have a good night, little ones. I'll
be back in the morning. Don't get into any trouble."

She shivered at the way they all stopped, even
the baby, to turn and stare at her. She knew they couldn't hear
her. Even if she'd knocked on the window, they wouldn't have heard
her. The enclosures were designed to stop all noise, to keep the
animals as comfortable as possible.

It made her wonder all over again as to their
intelligence level, and what else they were capable of that she
hadn't yet observed. She knew down to her toes that there was a
lot. She'd seen only the tip of the iceberg.

She let her fingers trail across the front of
the enclosure as she walked by, staring right back at them. She
heard Mr. Pyman talking with the two security guards behind
her.

No need to talk to her. Her pets were safe,
with the enclosure a comfortable temperature, and a baby who
already demonstrated it knew how to walk through walls just like
all the rest. No thieves stood a chance with her little ones. They
just wouldn't go with them.

With a last smile at them, she stretched out
her legs and headed for the exits.

The walking felt good. She swung her arms and
rolled her shoulders as she left the pet show. A whole night to
herself to finally relax a little bit with no meetings to
interrupt. She planned a long soak in a nice bubble bath and take a
little bit of her rapidly dwindling funds for a decent
meal.

People milled along the path to the nearby
'Hotel Circle.' Set one level down and a short distance away,
multiple hotels encircled a grassy landscaped center courtyard
complete with seating areas and fancy fountains. Unlike on a
surface world, no hovering vehicles zipped through the narrow
streets. Only pedestrians and small carts holding a maximum of four
people and a little luggage moved along them.

For an alien space station, filled with
technology she'd heard the humans still couldn't figure out, it
sure gave off the impression of a slower pace and lifestyle. She
enjoyed it, as it reminded her of the small hometown she'd grown up
in. Yet, how many people did she hear lived permanently on the
station? Six hundred thousand?

Damien was one of them. Working away to make
sure it all worked as it should. She envied him.

Oh yes. Time to find a place to settle down
herself while doing the other thing she loved: being a
xenobiologist. Seeing animals in their native habitat. Learning
from them and about them. Discovering traits and behaviors no one
else may have ever seen.

In her own way, she was an explorer, and she
loved it. She just needed to find a way to bring together her two
needs.

She stopped at the open doors of the foyer of
her hotel. People with luggage streamed out, including several she
knew to be exhibitors. She frowned as they passed her. What were
they doing? The show was just starting.

Then she caught a whiff of it. The doors of
the foyer closed and then opened again to allow the exit of another
group of people. With the movement came a stronger whiff. She
stepped back, putting a hand to her nose.

The smell was back, only this time it had hit
her hotel.

One of the other exhibitors stopped next to
her, the older man leaning on the top of one of his tall suitcases.
"You don't want to go in there."