Rachel froze, all her instincts telling her to pay attention. "Another problem?"
All three bots gave another questioning chirp, then another filled with wariness. With all the strange system faults going on it was enough of an answer for Rachel.
She grabbed the supply cart and started dragging it in the opposite direction. "Out we go. We'll do a long-distance scan before going in ourselves."
Her bot didn't complain. It chirped in the other direction once, and then shot off ahead of Rachel. Which only increased the sensation of urgency. Rachel started trotting, then running. With each step the sense of urgency built, pushing at her until she was in a full run.
Only to see a bulkhead sliding close in front of her with no chance of getting past it in time. As it closed she heard the sound of rushing water behind her.
***
The travel car stopped at an industrial platform. At least, that was what it looked like to Ignacio judging by the starkness of the space. No comfortable benches for waiting people to sit on. No decorations on the walls or floor. Only metal and the other hard stuff so much of Redpoint One seemed to be made of.
Ignacio stepped out of the travel car, wondering what he should do now. He didn't even know where he'd landed or who he should be looking for.
"Hello?" He called. As he expected, no one answered.
In the silence he thought he heard voices. Investigating the wide corridors leading off the platform he found one where he thought the sound was coming through stronger than the others. With no other clues, he headed down it.
It wasn't long before he found a large circular room with other rooms and corridors branching off it in all directions. A circular raised platform filled the middle, on top of which sat consoles and chairs. The railing running around the edge of the raised platform broke in several places with a single step leading down to the ground floor.
He recognized the man studying a hologram hovering over a circular table in the very middle of the platform.
"Arthur Getty," Ignacio called as he stepped into the room.
Arthur glanced towards him before returning his attention back to the hologram. "I'm sorry, but I have no time for visitors today. I'm dealing with an emergency right now."
"Does it have to do with a plumbing system near the upcoming pet show?" Ignacio asked, his hand tightening on the bag in his hand.
Arthur looked up, his attention completely on him. "Yes. How did you know?"
He lifted the bag. "One of my newts has been getting into the pipes. I just found these in his enclosure while giving it a thorough cleaning."
Arthur came to the edge of the platform to investigate the contents of the bag. He shook the bag while looking inside before shaking his head. "A few fittings. It shouldn't cause what just happened."
"Still no answer," a male voice said from Arthur's wrist.
Arthur dropped the bag on the top of a console and returned to the hologram, lifting his wrist before saying, "I'm not getting anything up here, either. It's like she literally dropped out of the station."
Somehow Ignacio knew they were talking about Rachel. Knew it for a certainty right to his bones. A few of the repair bots joined him at the edge of the platform, their eyes bobbing on eyestalks as they watched Arthur and the hologram.
"I'm calling out a full search party. Tish, I need you in the area as fast as you can. We need to know if something is wrong with Redpoint One's upper systems," Arthur said.
"I'll help," Ignacio called out. "Just tell me what area to search."
Arthur switched off the hologram, moving to step off the platform. "Leave this to those of us who know the area. We're intimately familiar with the station."
Ignacio pointed to a blue and gray robot that looked friendly. "One of the bots can come with me. I won't get lost. I want to help."
"Sorry, leave this to us."
Ignacio watched him heading to the door, his throat closing up. He called out after him, "I won't not be there. Not again."
Arthur stopped at the door, the bot trailing after him stopping as well. "What?"
"My first wife. I wasn't there for her. I will be there for Rachel," Ignacio said. He took in a deep breath and joined Arthur. "I'll follow you if I have to."
"No need. It seems the bots agree you should be there." Arthur pointed to his feet.
Ignacio looked down to find the blue and gray bot staring up at him, hovering right at his feet. Somehow, he felt better knowing it was there.
"Follow me. We're rendezvousing with others to organize the search. I'll explain on the way," Arthur said.
Ignacio was right on his heels as they headed back to the travel platform.
***
The water was filling the corridor fast. Rachel had long since left the supply cart behind. It could take care of itself. She needed to take care of her own neck.
And she was starting to get worried about it. The water already came up over the tops of her boots, making it hard to move very fast. Every door and corridor she tried wouldn't open, no matter what she or the other bots tried. Tools didn't make a difference either. To make matters worse, no one answered the calls she tried to make with her ID band.
"Come on, Redpoint! Time to open," Rachel yelled, pounding on another bulkhead. Which didn't make a difference, either.
She felt horrible in the head. Something felt wrong in this whole section. It was as if she couldn't hear Redpoint One at all. Even the bots were upset. All three stuck right close to her, as if looking to her for guidance. She didn't know what to tell them, other than she wanted out, too, and for a return of the soft mental touch of Redpoint One.
Now that she was without it, she realized how much she'd come to like it since arriving. Redpoint One was home, and the mental touch made her feel welcome. Now she couldn't feel anything other than a cold emptiness.
The bots grew more vocal in their worry, with even the two strange bots huddling next to her, looking for reassurance.
"We need a way out. Find a way out," Rachel said to them.
Usually, once they knew what she wanted, they did it. Took the lead, gave some indication of direction, but they didn't move away from her to lead the way.
Yet, the water continued rising.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
IGNACIO STAYED CLOSE to Arthur, letting the man lead them to the problem area. They arrived to other maintenance engineers already congregating. It lifted his heart to see so many would be joining in the search to find Rachel, but it made his heart sink to realize something was going on none of them understood.
"Any clues at all," the man called Damien asked.
"She's not showing up on any internal sensors," Arthur said. "This is the general area she was last seen in. We do a manual search from this point on."
Arthur passed out hand scanners and gave several teams general search locations. Ignacio took one of the last scanners, figuring out how to turn it on by himself. A simple scanner from the looks of it, and definitely human-made and not a construct of the station. After a few tries he felt comfortable with the interface, succeeding in getting it to pick up everyone around him.
"Okay, everyone head out, and stay together with your partner," Arthur said. "I don't want anyone else getting lost. Keep your eyes open, trust your instincts, and trust your bots."
Ignacio looked up, realizing he'd missed some of the instructions as he'd tried to figure out the scanner. Had he been assigned to a partner and missed it?
Among the pairs leaving into the maze of corridors, a man of medium build with blond hair waved at him. "Let's get going."
Ignacio rushed to join him. "You're my search partner?"
"You got it. Vasiliy Lukin," the man said with a short wave of the hand before turning into the corridors.
"Ignacio Manetti."
"You know our Rachel?" Vasiliy asked as the corridor started narrowing.
"We're dating," Ignacio said, wishing he could say more than that. Thanks to him and his cowardly heart, they
were barely dating at all. If not for the interfering Naughty Knitter's Club, they wouldn't have even had their romantic lasagna meal in the middle of the maintenance corridors.
Vasiliy stopped in the process of turning into a new corridor. "Wait, are you the one with the newts and the oil?"
The comment about the oil threw Ignacio until he remembered the attempt to get Irvine out of the pipes and back into his enclosure. "Sorry to say, yes, that was me. Or rather, Irvine."
Vasiliy gave a short laugh. "If we weren't in the middle of this, I would ask you to explain it in more detail. As it is, we need to find a direction."
Ignacio glanced back the way they'd come, to find two bots behind him, including the blue and gray bot. "You don't know?"
"I know we're supposed to search this general area, but not where Rachel might be. Bot, any ideas?" The white bot chirped a question, but didn't move. Vasiliy looked down the corridor he'd been about to head down. "There lays the problem."
"Shouldn't we start a basic search pattern?" Ignacio asked.
"Sure, we can do that," Vasiliy said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Honestly, I'm used to the bots knowing where a problem is, or getting a sense or instinct of where to start. I'm not getting anything right now. How about you?"
Ignacio looked up and down the corridors, as well. There wasn't much to see. Only an endless expanse of pipes, conduits, and control panels. A chaotic spaghetti that made no sense at all. Unlike the others, he didn't possess any instinct or knowledge of the layout of the internal workings of the station.
"I guess something is better than nothing," Ignacio said, picking one corridor.
The corridor didn't hold any hidden pockets of anywhere a person could disappear in. The more they searched, the more his heart sank until it felt like a rock. With a station as big as Redpoint One they could look for a lifetime and still not inspect all of it.
"I'm still not getting anything," Vasiliy said, glaring down the corridors. "I hate this."
"Maybe we should go up or down a level and try this general area again?" Ignacio asked.
"It's worth a try. There should be a ladder in this direction," Vasiliy said, pointing down a side corridor.
Up another level and they started the search all over again with the two bots in tow. Ignacio couldn't shake the feeling of something bad happening and time was of the essence. They weren't moving fast enough.
He stopped at a juncture branching off in five directions, remembering Arthur's warning to always trust the bots instincts. He asked the bot trailing him, "Do you know where Rachel is? What direction?"
The bot circled around his feet, as if not knowing where to go. At least he guessed that was what it meant. It was hard to tell without them speaking.
"If they knew, they would be in front of us, not behind," Vasiliy said. "I'm still not getting anything. How about you?"
"Still nothing."
Ignacio didn't want to say anything more than that. He knew his memories and emotions about what happened to his dead wife were coloring his reaction now. He didn't like it. He needed to be clear headed at the moment, and the memories were interfering. Somehow, they needed to find Rachel, and fast.
He picked a corridor at random but stopped shortly. This was ridiculous. If Rachel wasn't answering calls and the station and bots couldn't pick her up, then it meant she wasn't in a usual place, such as a corridor.
They could walk right by her without knowing. His mind flashed on the horror movie released last spring. The scene of the moving walls and corridors flashed through his head. Could they really move? Was that part of the kernel of truth among all the lies in the movie?
The blue and gray bot settled at his feet and stared up at him.
"We need to find a way to detect when she's near," he told the bot, hoping it could understand him. He waved the simple scanner in his hands. "I don't think this is going to do it. If Redpoint One can't sense her, why would this?"
"Too bad the sensors of one of the ships going through the decontamination tub can't help," Vasiliy said, stopping next to them.
"Oh, let me guess. Redpoint One doesn't allow them to see inside?" Ignacio said.
"It's one of the reasons pirates have never been able to take the station. They don't have the floor plans with which to plan the attack." Vasiliy paused. "Well, one of the reasons."
Ignacio was beginning to think he knew of the other reason. Perhaps some of the stories about moving walls might be true.
The blue and gray bot emitted a curious chirp and then a sad long beep. The eyestalks turned to look behind them and then back up at him. The bot settled to the floor, waiting.
Not the sort of answer he wanted. "Right. None of us have an answer. I get it."
The bot gave a subdued beep that faded out, in a way that reminded him of the noises Irvine made. Ah, Irvine. He couldn't blame the trouble-making newt this time.
With the thought, several things connected in his head. How Rachel's bot hated Irvine. Irvine hating Rachel. Didn't Paul mention Irvine hissed when they came back from the date?
The answer was so ridiculous, but perfect all at the same time.
"Bot, get me back to my warehouse as fast as possible. I think I have the answer," Ignacio said.
"You're giving up?" Vasiliy asked.
The bot whistled at him in a questioning tone again. Rachel was right. Bots should have names. "I'm not giving up. I have an idea. You. Wait, I'm calling you Trident for now. Trident, please take me home."
The bot gave one more chirp and took off back the way they'd come so fast Ignacio broke into a jog to keep up. At first, he thought Vasiliy had stayed to continue the search, but then heard him running behind them.
He thought it would take a while to get back home, as it seemed like they'd been moving through the corridors forever. Yet, they popped out of the hidden wall Eddie had used in no time.
Knowing where they were, he ran past the bot and to his warehouse. The bot paused at the front door while Ignacio continued inside and into the animal side.
Vasiliy followed him, stopping at the front while Ignacio continued to the back where he pulled out a carrier, making sure the tray in the bottom was filled with plenty of water. "Rachel wasn't kidding. You really do breed newts."
"And salamanders," Ignacio said, heading back up the aisle.
Irvine waited for him, as if sensing Ignacio had come back just for him. Catching him was another matter. Irvine wanted to explore on his own, not get put into a carrier.
Usually, the cleaning bot was enough to catch a newt and put him in a carrier. He should have known it wouldn't be so easy while in the midst of an emergency. Between himself and the cleaning robot, they cornered Irvine against a rock and Ignacio shooed him into the carrier.
Irvine hissed at him before settling in the pan of water in the middle.
"Keep the hiss for when it means something," Ignacio told him.
Vasiliy crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes going from Ignacio to the carrier, and back again. "What are we doing now?"
Ignacio continued out of the warehouse, knowing the man would follow. "Now we head back and search again. Trident, take us back where we stopped the search."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
IGNACIO COULDN'T RUN while carrying Irvine, having to content himself with a fast walk. Trident beeped and chirped at him in annoyance despite Ignacio telling it he couldn't move faster. He didn't like moving slow, either. It took much too long to get back to where they'd stopped searching.
Once they did arrive, Ignacio kept moving as fast as he dared. Irvine watched the scenery from amid the water, apparently unconcerned. Probably happy. Irvine liked new vistas, to judge by his pipe exploration. To walk the corridors was rather boring.
"What are we expecting to happen?" Vasiliy said as he trailed behind.
"Irvine hates Rachel," Ignacio said.
"You think Irvine will be able to sense what we can't and our sensors can't?"
"It's worth a try
. I haven't heard anyone over the ID bracelets say they've had any success."
The lack of success seriously worried Ignacio. So many people searching, and not a sign of Rachel anywhere? They knew Rachel's last location. Someone should have found someone, somewhere.
Up and down corridors they went with Trident sometimes leading the way, but leaving Ignacio to choose new directions at the junctures. He wished it wouldn't. He didn't trust his instincts in the corridors. In fact, if he didn't have the bot and Vasiliy with him, he would be seriously worried about being hopelessly lost.
Large corridors, small corridors, some barely large enough for him to get Irvine's carrier through. He was completely turned around, tired, and achy, but he didn't stop. He wouldn't stop until someone found Rachel.
Then came a small hiss.
Ignacio stopped, looking down. The bot stopped and turned to stare at Irvine. From the direction Irvine faced, they knew where to head. The big problem came from the long solid wall of pipes several layers deep. Not one door intersected the pipes in either direction, allowing them an easy way to get through.
He moved towards the wall and the hissing grew louder.
"He's hissing," Vasiliy said.
"I know. She's here. Somewhere."
As if to reinforce it, Irvine hissed at the wall again.
Vasiliy lifted his ID band. "Boss, we might have found Rachel's general location."
"We'll find you. Don't move," Arthur answered back.
Ignacio did move. He walked up and down the corridor until he came as close to Rachel as he could get. At least, according to his newt compass.
Arthur and Damien arrived first. When Ignacio pointed to the wall and told them they would find Rachel on the other side, Arthur asked, "Why do you think she's here?"
"Would you believe a newt led us?" Vasiliy asked, pointing at Ignacio's carrier.
Arthur and Damien both stared at him in shock. Arthur asked, "You're telling me you found Rachel with the help of a newt?"
Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) Page 13