Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) (6 page)

Penny shook her head, causing her ear tufts to
wave back and forth. A chin-scratch with one hind leg, and she got
up to prance to the back of the enclosure. Soon, she was
rearranging her own nest.

A few moments later the eyes were closed and
their bodies relaxed.

Asleep? That fast? And she'd been worried
about them settling down tonight after so much excitement in the
day, starting off with a malfunctioning environmental controller.
Thankfully fixed quickly by Redpoint One maintenance
engineers.

Which brought to mind something else that had
been on her mind all day. She'd been rather short with both of the
men in her worry over the daubpups. They did come rather fast, and
they did fix the problem. It didn't matter if one of them was in
training. The one called Damien knew what he was doing. Obviously.
She wished she could apologize.

Neon looked up at her through the front of the
enclosure, the tufts of her ears back against her neck as she
leaned into the scratches Vallory was giving her. Her eyes should
be closed. They usually were when she was enjoying
scratches.

Instead, Neon was giving her a mischievous
know-it-all expression that Vallory had learned usually meant
trouble.

"No, it does not mean I think he might have
been cute, in his own way," Vallory said firmly at Neon. "It only
means I feel bad and want to apologize. That's all."

Neon sniffed at her and tossed her head,
causing the tufts to flop against the back of Vallory's hand. With
another sniff and a chirp, she turned away and headed back to the
grouping of grassy nests.

"Fine, don't believe me." Vallory closed the
feeding door and glared at Neon as the daubpup went about settling
herself in.

Definitely not interested. She didn't like
muscled men like that. They usually had attitudes to go with it.
Like the apprentice.

A small voice reminded her that Damien hadn't
had the same attitude. He'd been polite and straight-forward, and
he got the job done quickly.

Vallory pushed the hair away from her face,
suddenly feeling flushed. Too much time away from other people. Too
much time with the daubpups and not her own species. That was the
only reason she'd noticed the man. And, really, he just wasn't her
type. Really.

At the last thought, Vallory looked up to
glare at Neon, sure the daubpup would be staring right back at
her.

Not this time. All of them appeared to be
asleep. Little colorful mounds in their nests of straw and grass.
Settled in for the night.

Something she should do herself. The daubpups
didn't need her help tonight like she thought they
might.

Her knees protested as she climbed to her
feet. Yes, time to take care of herself, and that included finding
the meal she'd missed because of the meeting she'd just come
from.

With one more check on the daubpups, she
headed for the nearest exit. Not many in the building now. She
would be back in the hotel room in no time, with a quick stop-off
for an indulgence for junk food from one of the small places in the
nearby food court.

"Vallory Schist?" one of the female security
guards at the door asked as she started to pass through.

Vallory paused. "Yes?"

"Ma'am, security would like to speak with you
before you leave for the evening," the guard said, gesturing back
into the building and towards the far end of the
building.

In the direction of the
pet-napping.

Vallory felt her skin grow hot. "Why? I wasn't
here when it happened."

"It will take only a few minutes of your time.
We are interviewing many of the exhibitors. One of you may have
seen something helpful," the guard said.

"But, I wasn't here," Vallory said, even as
she found herself being guided back inside the building, her
protest completely ignored.

First the problem with the enclosure. Then the
bad news at the meeting. Now this?

Definitely not her day.

CHAPTER FOUR

DAMIEN FLEXED HIS shoulders as he settled back into his
favorite swiveling chair on the raised maintenance platform. Too
many heavy lifts and working himself into small spaces the previous
day. He could see why Rachel did so well in plumbing with her
smaller body size.

Lord, he wanted her back at her
job.

Especially when he was put back on plumbing
duty for the day. Watching over two departments instead of one. He
would be lucky just to keep up with the emergencies, much less
perform the standard maintenance life-support required.

"Hear that, Station? We need more help,"
Damien whispered before he took another sip from his rapidly
emptying coffee cup.

"Remember to keep your eyes open for any
section closing off," Arthur was saying to the crew assembled.
"Allegra nearly had one of her crew trapped last night."

Not good news to start the day off with. What
was the crazy station doing?

"Any answers on why it's happening?" Vasiliy
asked from the wall next to the break room door.

All the attention went to Zane, who stood
quietly at one side of the raised platform while Arthur gave out
the morning assignments. He stepped forward, his face and body
stiff. "If you are asking if I have discovered an answer to the
station problems in the first day since my arrival, I'm sorry to
report I have not."

"Any clues at all?" Simon Mang asked. A man
who had good reason to ask, considering he oversaw the hazardous
materials systems and transport. Not stuff anyone wanted a system
glitch to expose them to dangerous substances.

"No, I'm afraid not. Yesterday I noticed a bad
odor go through this room. I understand this is a relatively recent
phenomena?" Zane asked. Everyone in the room nodded or murmured an
affirmative. "To help us pin this problem down, I ask that you
report the moment you encounter the odor. I want to see if there is
any pattern to the issue."

"In addition to that request, report anything
unusual," Arthur said. "Director Stemski is giving us the services
of one of the administrative pool to help us keep records. Ami Cox,
where are you?"

A tall lanky woman wearing computer glasses
stepped away from a wall and waved her hand in the air. "I'll
monitor the maintenance frequencies and recording incidents. Just
let me know where and when they happen."

"Report them the moment they happen," Zane
repeated. "I want to visit the locations as an incident is
occurring, if possible."

Damien couldn't help shaking his head at Ami's
attire. Computer glasses for interfacing with a computer. Hair tied
back and streaked with multiple colors. Fitted pants and loose
shirt. The typical appearance of a tech-head.

Still, if they wanted someone to log in
information and look for patterns, that would be the kind of person
they would want. Still, not necessarily the best appearance for a
woman. It hid her real shape, and did her no favors.

And yet, Vallory Schist hadn't dressed to her
best advantage, either. Not even close, but Damien had certainly
noticed her in their short encounter the day before. A long skirt,
an oversized mid-sleeved shirt. The purples and blues hadn't really
matched, either. Big clunky jewelry that overwhelmed her delicate
features.

"Also, a reminder. Today the Redpoint One
Exotic Pet Show opens to the public," Arthur said, bringing up a
subject far too close to Damien's thoughts. "If you are called to
repair a system related to the show, I ask that you do it quickly.
The show has high priority, an order direct from Director Stemski.
Any questions?"

Damien polished off the last of the coffee
while the morning briefing wound down. With the few lingering
questions dealt with, the crews started heading out of the platform
for their morning repairs. Arthur, Tish, and Zane moved to the side
with Ami to talk in a small huddle surrounded by bots.

Time for him to head out. He had plenty to
take care of, with several high priority repairs at the top of his
list. By the time he rinsed out his coffee cup and headed back to
the central room, his bot had appeared with the cart they'd prepped
the night before.

"Anticipating me, Scoundrel?" Damien asked.
The bot stared up at him, not uttering a sound. He sighed. "Okay,
so 'Scoundrel' is not your name. Ready to go out and
work?"

His bot gave a happy chirp and headed for the
other side of the room towards the main exit. Damien followed,
finding himself vexed. Shay managed to name his bot the very first
day. From the sound of it, so did Tish. He'd been here for how many
years, and he couldn't find a name for his?

Not fair. At all.

"Or is it that you don't want a name?" Damien
asked the bot as they arrived at the transit platform.

His bot chirped a question back at him, but
not looking at Damien when it did. Instead, it watched as one of
the smaller travel pods the maintenance crew used appeared from one
of the tunnels and coasted to a stop in front of them.

"You need a name," Damien informed
it.

"Damien?" Arthur's voice asked even as the bot
whistled another question at him.

Damien activated the communication link. "I'm
here."

"First request from the pet show today.
Something to do with the air conditioning in one of the buildings.
Can you head there now?" Arthur asked.

"On my way."

With the cart and his bot safely stowed,
Damien slipped into the front of the travel pod. Already an
emergency messing up his repair plans for the day. Oh yes, the day
was off to a great start.

They arrived at the problem site quickly
enough. Someone in the show office pointed them towards the right
building. His bot led them directly to a utility panel on the
outside of one of the buildings. He unlocked the panel and swung it
open. Before he could even get a good look inside, his bot gently
pushed him aside and started working on its own.

He leaned up against the wall as his bot went
to work repairing the electrical problem. Straight-forward issue,
as far as he could tell. The problem didn't make sense at all. "Why
are we here?"

His bot whistled at him while it stayed
focused on the task, but he couldn't discern any information from
it. Usually he could.

"Seriously. Why are we here? One of the
independent bots could have fixed a problem as simple as this.
Should have fixed it. Why were we called in by the system?" A chirp
this time, but still no answer. Why was his bot behaving like this?
"Snowy? Albert? Ivory? Tachet? Sassy?"

His bot ignored each name, until he said the
last one, at which point is screeched.

"Okay, okay, you don't like that one," Damien
said with a sigh. Still no answer. Here he was, standing to the
side waiting for his bot to do the fine electrical fix with its
small robotic arm graspers poking out of an opening at the front of
its shell casing. A repair they should have never been called out
for in the first place.

"Naming a pet?"

Damien stiffened at the husky female voice.
Annoyance and excitement bolted through him at the same
time.

He pushed off the wall. Vallory stood a short
distance away, the morning crowd of the pet show starting to mill
about the fairgrounds behind her. Instead of the conservative suits
and presentation clothing most of the exhibitors would wear to
impress the public and judges alike, she wore a flowery pink dress
with long bunched-up dark red socks that folded over the very top
of her athletic shoes.

Athletic shoes? Not even a simple pair of
flats? And purple and neon pink, to boot.

"Good morning," Damien said, as way of saying
anything at all. He couldn't take his eyes off her colorful attire,
and what lay just underneath. Lithe and trim. He remembered that
from before, with a flare of the hips he found pleasing, despite
the current fashion fad of stick-thin. "Today is the big
day."

Utter confusion filled her face, causing her
to scrunch up her freckle-spotted nose. "Big day?"