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A TURN OF THE PIPES
A Redpoint One Romance
By J.A. Marlow
Exclusively Published By Star Catcher Publishing - Smashwords Edition
Starcatcherpub.com
Other Redpoint One Titles
Coffee Cup Dreams
A Turn of the Pipes
Once Upon a Pet Show
Description
An alien newt leads to... love?
Rachel Henderkito's job of taking care of Redpoint One's plumbing problems isn't easy, especially when citizen pets clog up the pipes. After fishing an alien newt out of the pipes for a third time she takes the creature back to its owner for a stern warning.
Ignacio Manetti is determined to help keep rare alien newts and salamanders off the extinction list. He doesn't have time for romance, nor for the heart-breaking memories it brings with it.
Add in an alien flying squirrel, preparations for Redpoint One's annual Exotic Pet Show, and the lovably interfering Naughty Knitter's Club, how can romance not bloom?
Except Rachel and her bot hate his rare Mandian Ruffled Newt while he unconditionally loves it.
Copyright
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my family, who have been supportive of all my writing since I can remember. All my stories are for you.
This book is also dedicated to all those who love to daydream.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
Sample - Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance)
Sample - The Children of Jad Omnibus
Star Catcher Publishing
CHAPTER ONE
"LOVE IS IN the air," Velda Morgan said. She gave a glass of red wine an appreciative sniff, her eyes closing for one brief moment of ecstasy. All the guests of her bed and breakfast were taken care of for the night. Time to turn her attention to something much more personal.
"Love is always in the air for you." Eddie Gilmore pulled at a tangled ball of yarn. "Do we actually intend to knit today?"
"Knit? The Naughty Knitter's Club has more important things to do than knit." Daisy Pinner used one foot to push her knitting bag further under the coffee table. "Only need the bags to distract the husbands."
"Forget husbands," Velda said, her keen eyes pinning each of them over the lip of her wine glass. "Haven't you heard of Arthur Getty? The poor man is smitten."
Eddie sighed, letting the tangled yarn drop back into the bag. "Yes, Velda, dear. We heard all about it from Rachel, same as you."
"One fallen heart often leads to another. We should help this along."
The two other woman laughed, casting each other disbelieving glances. Velda ignored them, choosing to take another long sip of the wine.
"'Forget husbands' you say, and then you bring up love. Is Velda a little confused?" Daisy asked.
"Not confused. One does not necessarily lead to the other," Velda said, pleased to see Eddie narrowing her gaze.
"What do you have planned? I hope it doesn't surround a certain mutual friend," Eddie said.
Velda merely shrugged, letting her left foot play with the straps of one of her high-healed shoes. "Why not? She's a pretty young thing, all her life to still live."
"And we have a right to do this because?" Daisy let the question hand in the air.
Velda grinned with a touch of evil. "Because we don't have as much time left to live, and we need a bit of excitement."
Eddie stabbed the knitting needles into the bag. "Not fair to Rachel."
"We aren't going to force her into any match. Just broaden the range of choice in front of her." Velda slipped the shoe back on, her excitement growing at the thought. Their workaholic Rachel needed a little help broadening her horizons.
"I suppose you have a plan on how to do this?" Daisy asked, her weathered face giving way to a smile and a twinkle in her eye.
"I can't believe you two. Leave the poor girl alone," Eddie said, although her words held no bite. "She isn't missing all that much anyway."
"Stop your worrying. What I'm thinking of will not only help Rachel get a little excitement into her life, but help Redpoint One's maintenance department."
Both of the other women's faces went blank. Eddie finally asked, "How do you intend to do both at the same time?"
"We," Velda started, emphasizing the word, "are going to get into the recruitment business. Time to find the maintenance department a few good men and women to help out! Emphasis on the men."
The news didn't excite the others like she thought it would. Eddie pulled back out a tangled knot of yarn and started working at it again while Daisy collapsed back into her high-backed chair, playing with her tea mug.
"Oh, come on. Where is your sense of excitement?" Velda demanded.
"Honestly, knitting sounds more fun," Eddie said. "It would be nice to start a project, much less finish one."
"Can't we go rummage-selling again?" Daisy asked. "I have a corner where I need a tall table or bookshelf."
"Ladies, ladies. Remember who you are knitting with." Velda gestured at the room and the dining room attached at one end. "The Northstar Bed and Breakfast is known far and wide as a place of many adventures. I have contacts everywhere. Time to start finding candidates."
The others still didn't share her enthusiasm, but she knew they would, eventually. Once they started getting pictures back, that was.
***
Another day, another credit.
Rachel Henderkito checked over the contents of the cart one more time. With the number of system problems cropping up lately she needed to be ready to tackle almost anything on the spot instead of waiting for parts to be shuttled to her.
All the while her mind spun on the slightly surreal night with her favorite group of old ladies the night before. The Naughty Knitters Club weekly meeting at the Northstar Bed and Breakfast usually involved little or no knitting but a lot of laughing and plain fun. Last night it involved even less than usual, and the questions about her preferences in men and observations on the romances springing up among mutual friends unnerved her
.Her three favorite ladies were up to something. Every fiber in her being told her so.
"I think I have it set up right," Tish Douglas said, coming up to her cart. She held out a utility belt lined with pouches. "Can you double check?"
Rachel automatically reached out for it. "I don't know why I should. You have this down now."
"Still the newbie worried about not being prepared. It's been so busy lately that I hardly know which end is up," Tish said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Tish reached up to tighten the holographic hair-ties in her ponytail. The three bots at her feet gazed up at her with one e
yestalk on each of them sporting the same type of holographic hair-ties. Crimson, Violet, and Aqua, named after the color of their hair-ties. Tish's repair bots all ready to follow and help their mistress at whatever repair job she took on.
Rachel couldn't argue about the busy part. It wasn't her imagination that the entire department was running itself ragged. Too much to do and too few people to accomplish it all. Hanging over all of them loomed the pervading sensation of slowly falling behind with no way to catch up.
"Good morning," Arthur Getty said as he walked into the main maintenance platform of Redpoint One wearing his typical short-sleeved shirt and form-fitting heavy pants.
Rachel echoed the greeting as she checked through the pouches one by one, finding all of them full with the proper raw materials. Just as she'd expected. Tish might doubt her abilities, but time and again she'd proved a fast and eager learner. They'd been blessed when Tish came to them. She'd picked up the job of working on the unique space station of Redpoint One unusually fast.
"And good morning to you," Arthur said from much closer.
Rachel raised her head to echo the greeting only to find it not for her. Instead, Arthur hugged Tish from behind and planted a quick kiss on the curving arch of her neck. Tish beamed at the attention, her soft brown eyes happy and sparkling.
Rachel was happy for her new friend, honestly. She reminded herself of all the reasons why. For friendship, for the absolute no-possibility of Arthur and herself ever having an attraction, for Tish's previously lonely life now full, for the happy bots they seemed to be plagued with ever since Tish arrived.
And, none of it helped.
"Here you go. You filled right, like I suspected," Rachel said, handing back the belt.
Tish took the belt with one hand while her attention followed Arthur as he headed for the cafeteria and the coffee waiting on the counter inside. A soft sigh escaped her lips. "Thank you."
Tish wandered away, the three bots who looked to her following in her wake. Rachel shook herself when she realized she was scowling after her. The two were adults, heads of their separate departments. They could have a romance if they chose to.
Rachel dropped one more valve into her cart and pulled it towards the central raised platform. She left it beside her bot as she stepped up on it and checked one of the consoles. As had been typical lately, several reports of plumbing failures awaited her.
Her mind classified each one from the most important to those she could put off. One of them her new apprentice could take on by himself.
She straightened up to find Damien sitting in one of the nearby chairs, his feet crossed and propped up on the corner of a console. He stared at her while nursing a steaming cup of coffee.
"Problem?" He asked.
"We always have problems. I might need to rebuild a juncture. Not my favorite activity," Rachel said.
"No, I mean with that." Damien gestured to the side with his coffee cup.
Rachel's eyes followed the motion only to find another tender moment being shared in the doorway of the cafeteria between Tish and Arthur. Only quiet words, but the body language said it all. The leaning in towards each other, the smiles and glances.
"Your point?" Rachel checked the front two pouches of her belt to make sure she'd remembered to fill them.
"A little jealous of a new love affair right under your nose?"
Rachel leveled on him a dark glare. "That was inappropriate."
Damien shrugged his wide muscled shoulders. "Yet, the truth. As it’s grown so has your temper." He took another sip of coffee before adding, "Have you dated since whats-his-name?"
"Yes I have, and it has nothing to do with my temper," Rachel said. "My temper is because of a station falling apart around our ears and not enough people to handle it."
"Umhmm," Damien responded, indicating he didn't believe her a bit.
Which infuriated her even more. It didn't matter if he might be a little too close to the matter. He still didn't have to say it out loud. It made her feel too much like a sulky child.
Before Rachel could formulate any kind of a response to remove the all-knowing expression from Damien's face, Arthur reappeared and stepped up on the center platform. Rachel crossed her arms and leaned a hip against a bit of the railing encircling the center raised platform while he read through the system faults.
Damien's eyes silently laughed at her, darkening her mood even more. Just to prove him wrong on her feelings towards her friends, Rachel forced herself to flash a smile at Tish as the shorter woman joined them. Tish was still her friend, no matter the dearth of male attention in Rachel's life.
A good day of working to set the systems of Redpoint One right would help. Time away. She promised herself time to talk Tish into joining her for the next Naughty Knitters Club meeting. Maybe it would distract the ladies from whatever they were plotting and planning.
"We have a number of high-importance repairs to make today," Arthur said in a voice loud enough to carry into the rooms surrounding the central room, bringing out other maintenance engineers. Damien dropped his feet from the console and swiveled around to give his undivided attention. "Tish, I see several for you, as well."
"Already have it lined out," Tish said. "I called in a few extra bots to help me out. We'll be fine."
Calling out extra bots before even starting the repairs? Rachel wished she knew how to do that as it would help the big repairs to go so much faster. She'd tried before, with limited success. Problem was, the bots and the space station couldn't communicate with them in any normal way, being the construct of long-gone and possibly extinct alien species. Yet, somehow, Tish could.
Arthur started giving out assignments to the people surrounding the platform. One by one and in pairs they hurried off to begin the day's work. Damien drained the last of his coffee to join a new apprentice Rachel had never seen before, heading out to repair a life-support system.
"Rachel, the blockage in block CFI-21 appears to be defying the repair bot attempts at a self-repair," Arthur said. "I know you have other high-priority repairs, but I would like to see you solve this one today."
Rachel nodded as she glanced around the room at the few people remaining. "I'm a little mystified as to why the systems can't figure it out, too. Have you seen Wu?"
Arthur rubbed the back of his neck in a way that immediately put Rachel on warning. "Allegra had a problem last night."
"What kind of problem?" Rachel asked, straightening up.
Allegra managed the secondary maintenance platform on the other side of the space station. True, she was understaffed just like the main platform, but what did it have to do with her apprentice? Her bot beeped a question from behind her, picking up on her wariness.
"Kumar slipped on a wet floor and hit his head. He's out for a couple weeks," Arthur said. He gave her a wane smile. "The only other plumber we have available is Wu. Except you, but I need you here."
In a way, it pleased her to be needed at the main platform to such a degree. On the other hand, this meant she had no one to help her with the day's repairs.
"Wu is only an apprentice, and two weeks old at that. He doesn't have the training to go on his own," she pointed out. "I believe he'll get there, he seems to have the instincts, but this is too soon."
"As you said, he has the instincts. We don't have a choice at this time. Allegra can't be left without a plumber."
Rachel couldn't argue with the logic, although she wanted to. Why should anyone be pleased to have a good apprentice for only two weeks? A few years, maybe, but not two weeks.
"I'll find you another apprentice," Arthur said, as if reading her mind. "In the meantime, be prepared for any repairs outside of Wu's abilities."
But, they both knew the odds of finding someone who would stick around. One that the alien intelligence of Redpoint One would accept, and through it, the repair bots would accept. The station might not be able to communicate with them in a common language, but it had no trouble letting anyone it di
dn't like know they were not welcome.
In response her bot chirped at her, obviously anxious to get going. Rachel was too, especially if she expected to accomplish all the main repairs for her department by herself.
"Right. I'm off, alone, to block CFI-21and then to the rest of the repairs," Rachel said, wishing she'd gone for a third cup of coffee. "Anything else?"
"Uh, yes. Are you doing okay?" Arthur asked.
Trust him to notice her mood the past few days even while being head-over-heels in love. She shook her head. "Doing fine, only overworked."
Like Damien earlier, the expression on Arthur's face said he didn't believe her. An alarm going off from the center round table on the platform stopped him from pursuing the matter.
A holographic image of Redpoint One complete with all seven of its rotating rings appeared over the table. A red pulsing light throbbed from one point on one of the rings. The image zoomed in to show corridors and an alien symbol hovering next to the red light. The symbol she'd come to know belonged to her department.
"Just what I need. A plumbing emergency," Rachel said with a sharp shake of her head. Of course, she would have one while all alone in her department with not a single apprentice or helper on the horizon.
"Duty calls," Rachel said, stepping off the raised central platform. Her bot took hold of the arm of the cart full of plumbing sides.
"Call if you need help," Arthur called after her as she left the maintenance platform.
Rachel wouldn't call unless absolutely forced to. He would be busy with his own repairs. To be honest, she needed to be alone. Time with her bot, time on the job, time to find a way to get a handle on her bad attitude.
Her bot hummed and clicked all the way to the transit tube in a way Rachel liked to call Redpoint One Repair Bot Singing. She knew why it was doing it, too. The bots might not react as expected to language, but they did to emotion, and today Rachel was just a bundle of unhappiness.
One of the larger maintenance cars waited for her at the transit platform. Slipping inside, she secured the supply cart to the rear and settled in for the short ride out to the ring. The bot continued to sing, occasionally chirping out questions to her that she had no way of understanding.
Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) Page 1