Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance)

by Marlow, J. A.

  It didn't matter. The chirps still made her smile, just as they did when she'd first encountered the bots.

  Her bot left the cart to come settle next to her feet, turning its eyestalks to gaze up to her, giving another questioning chirp. She let a hand drop down to the white and yellow curved main shell of its body. "I get it. Get happier."

  Her bot made a smug beep that had her rolling her eyes.

  The car came to a stop at the travel platform closest to the problem area. Unfortunately for her it happened to be a public travel platform, and one where the inhabitants knew her.

  Her fears proved founded when Ms. Witherstone spotted her from the crowd waiting for a travel car on the other side of the platform. "Rachel, dear. How wonderful you are down here! Our apartment block needs looking at."

  "Sorry, I have an emergency to attend to. Please file a service request." Rachel urged her bot forward faster before Ms. Witherstone could extricate herself from the crowd and come after her. The old lady might be sweet, but sometimes she didn't know the word 'no.'

  Then came two people she knew from the garden club. Then the kids from the local school who'd noticed their playing field getting a little swampy. Another who was convinced the water in her apartment tasted different from anyone else's.

  A lot of it stuff she could have set a good solid apprentice on to learn the job and the community. She tried to reason with herself, telling herself that she'd had a good apprentice in Wu for two weeks. She should be glad for the time. It gave her faith other good apprentices might be out there somewhere.

  Who was she kidding? She needed someone for more than two weeks, someone who would stick around and become a full-time plumbing engineer at the main platform. Someone to stay in her department that none of the other departments could steal out from under her.

  "Know of anyone searching for a job?" Rachel asked her bot as they moved into the proper maintenance corridors of the area, one of the larger ones, she noted.

  Her bot chirped back at her as it led the way to the repair before it started singing its unique song all over again.

  Finding many other repair bots waiting for her didn't bode well. Finding a steady stream of water trickling out from among a cluster of pipes added to the concern.

  The big pipes towards the back of the wall serviced most of the sector with both fresh water and waste removal. Trying a few of the valves, turning them on and off in sequence and the first good news of the day appeared. The problem turned out not to be in any of the waste removal pipes, but one of the fresh water pipes. Much cleaner to work on and she didn't need to worry about haz-mat level cleanup afterwards.

  The bots swarmed around her as she worked to get down to the exact problem segment. Once she narrowed down the location, she discovered a small leak around one of the main overflow valves. Multiple hands came and went with the tools she asked for and parts from the cart.

  The repair didn't take very long. What bothered her was that the maintenance alarm in the area didn't go away. Instead, Arthur reported a new alarm going off in her location. She found the new problem spot only to have a new alarm go off.

  Rachel scowled at the maintenance corridors around her. "It's as if something is playing with the pressure."

  Her bot chirped a question, but instead of leading her to a new problem area, it stayed at her feet. She knew what that meant. Her bot was waiting for her to decide what to do about the mess next.

  "This isn't a treasure hunt. We go to the next alarm," Rachel told her bot.

  This time she led the way to the problem area, using all her senses to help her judge the status of the new problem. The line of bots trailed along behind her, quiet for once as she concentrated.

  A pressure. Definitely a pressure coming from the area. No smells to speak of, which meant no waste-water problems. Come to think of it, all the problems had been in the fresh water.

  Her right hand trailed along a main water pipe before it curved into the wall. A few more valves under strain, but no breaks. What could be causing the problem? The station automatically adjusted the water pressure to remain within tolerances. She shouldn't have the problem at all.

  She rounded a corner to find even more bots waiting, finding the sheer number shocking. Her heart sank. A congregation of a large number of bots usually meant a major problem. For her, it usually meant the break of a water main or something similar

  Then she spotted circling holographic colors around two bot eye-stalks. Rachel stopped at the edge of the grouping of bots, calling out, "Tish?"

  CHAPTER TWO

  TISH'S HEAD POPPED out from a cavity in the wall, a dark smudge under one eye. "Oh, hi. Where did you come from?"

  Rachel adjusted the belt around her waist. "Repairs and more repairs, one after the other. You?"

  Tish made a face before disappearing back into the cavity. "Mine are scattered all over the place. One of them needs an EVA and I don't feel comfortable doing one by myself yet, so I'm meeting Arthur back at the platform after lunch."

  Along with a few minutes for soft whispers and snatched kisses, she was sure.

  Rachel shook herself, knowing she wasn't being fair to her friend. Tish hadn't had a very happy life before she came to Redpoint One. She deserved to be happy, and Arthur appeared to truly adore her.

  "Good luck on the repair," Rachel said, firmly putting her mind back to business.

  "Thought I would take care of the small problem down here first. It was on my way back," Tish's voice echoed back to her from the cavity.

  "Odd your problem should be near mine." Rachel held out a hand for the scanner and her bot set it in her hand. "What problem are you working on? Maybe they are connected?"

  "Logic juncture failure." Tish reappeared with a small gray box in her hand with a blue and red coiled cable dangling out the back of it. "Taken care of now. By the way, you had a bad valve down here. I sent some of the mini-bots inside the pipe to repair it."

  Rachel stopped in the process of scanning the pipes with the thin scanner. "You already fixed the problem?"

  "We'll know in a few minutes," Tish said. "Maybe the systems will compensate better for problems down here now. Did you know the logic juncture was actually asking the systems to raise fluid pressures in this area? What a silly thing to do."

  Which explained the valve failures. "Any idea how long it's been doing it?"

  "Not a clue. The Station is good at telling me when something is wrong, but not always the details." Tish handed the juncture to her bot, Violet, while giving Rachel a big grin. "But, I don't have to tell you that."

  "No, Ms. Newbie." Rachel stopped the scanner over a valve.

  The image clearly displayed a valve stuck in the open position and several small bodies of bots working away at it. A check of the database showed she'd installed the valve only six months before. The newer valve should have no problems for a good long time to come. Her scowl deepened. Did the station have it in for her personally?

  Tish joined her to look at the image. Another miniature bot joined the others. She noted, "They aren't panicked."

  "No, and they have the problem in hand. Just as well. I would have to shut down the sector's water to replace it." Rachel dropped the scanner so that it bumped against her thigh. "Time to go to the next problem. By the way, do you have any plans next Thursday night?"

  "Not that I know of," Tish said, a frown on her face. "Did I forget a meeting?"

  "No, I want to drag you along with me for a little fun." The idea had been a spur-of-the-moment idea to divert attention from herself, but the more she thought about it; the more she liked it. Tish would love the ladies in the club and it would help her meet even more people on the station.

  "Should I be worried?" Tish asked, not smiling at all.

  Rachel handed the scanner to her bot. "Nope. I meet up with a knitter's club at a bed and breakfast on one of the rings. You can get to know a few more of the locals."

  "I don't knit. Does anyone anymore?"


  "Some do, as a hobby," Rachel said. "Hand crafts are all the rage. You only need to bring yourself. It'll be fun."

  Tish didn't look convinced. "Will you be there?"

  "Of course."

  Tish's smile returned. "That's okay, then."

  Rachel's bot squealed, the pitch rising the longer it went. The instant after it started, Tish's bots joined in. Multiple robot arms and hands erupted from openings in the backs of the bots, reaching out towards them.

  Before Rachel could get her bearings and figure out the cause, the hands pulled her legs out from under her. The next moment she was sliding along the floor along with Tish, a swarm of bots all around them, speeding out of the area. The sound of a thundering crack echoed through the corridor just before a funnel of water shot out from one wall to slam into the wall on the other side of the corridor.

  Right where Tish and Rachel had just been standing.

  A bulkhead slid closed at their feet, blocking the water from view as it surged across the floor. The bots stopped their mad escape, chirping and beeping at each other nervously. Tish's bots clustered around her, while Rachel's bot ducked its eye-stalks and peered up in her face.

  "I'm fine," Rachel said, her voice shaky.

  "What happened?" Tish demanded, hugging her middle and not even trying to stand up.

  "A main broke. But, the valve was fine!" Then she realized the spot. "No, it wasn't the valve. The break came from further to the left."

  Rachel used the cart to help herself get to her feet which some robot had grabbed and dragged out with them. She held a hand down to help Tish.

  "A new break? I didn't sense a problem when I came into that area. I should have." Tish took in a shuddering breath as she used Rachel's helping hand to get to her feet. "The stream of water could have cut us in half."

  "Or slammed us into the other side of the corridor. Either way, it would have hurt." Rachel stared at the bulkhead. "Get the feeling the place is falling apart?"

  "I've had that feeling since I arrived. However, this is the first time I've felt threatened by the station."

  Rachel glanced up towards the ceiling. She didn't sense any animosity from the station. Nothing seemed out of normal from that quarter.

  Tish shook her head. "No, not that way. I mean, well." She stopped, her features screwing up into an expression of frustration. "I'm not sure what I mean. Okay, what now? How do we fix this?"

  "I fix it. I'll shut off the sector, drain the corridor, see about finding the problem." Which would most likely take all day. So much for the big long list of repairs she wanted to finish today. "Don't you have an EVA to get ready for?"

  Tish started, glancing down at her ID band. "Goodness, the time. You're right. I'm repairing one of the self-defense modules. No pirates are going to get a chance at us again."

  Rachel smiled. Tish held a personal vendetta against the pirates now. She had to admit she felt more secure knowing Redpoint now had someone watching out for those systems full-time, along with the computer systems controlling them. Now to make the internal systems as intact as Tish was making the outside.

  She reminded herself again of her department's importance in the day to day running of the station as calls started coming in. Then came a call from Arthur to check the progress. Sector representatives and then Director Stemski himself, all wanting to know when the water would flow again.

  They should consider themselves lucky to have water back the same day.

  Rachel didn't know how it happened, but the pipe failure occurred between the valves and joints. The solid lengths were supposed to be the strongest parts of the system. How did metal so thick suddenly give way with so much corrosion lining the inside of the pipe without anyone, including the repair bots, knowing?

  The horrifying thought of massive metal fatigue or corrosion prompted another call to Arthur.

  "I've seen no evidence of similar damage," Arthur said as soon as she expressed her fear.

  In the background she heard Tish's voice. Rachel rested against the pipes, rolling her tired shoulders. "Are you on the EVA?"

  "Yes. I'll ask Damien to inspect his systems to see if he finds anything similar," Arthur said.

  Rachel tried to explain she hadn't seen any previous signs prior to the break, but ultimately stopped. From the conversation coming from the other side of the ID bracelet it sounded like Tish and Arthur must have come up on a problem area. She knew what it felt like to be distracted by the needs of the station, so she severed the connection.

  She continued her inspection of the pipe until the heavy-duty robots arrived with a replacement pipe. The large hole in the side sported jagged sides. Parts of the edges curled outwards, probably from the force of the water.

  "I want the pipe saved for inspection," Rachel told the two large robots hoisting it into place. One of them gave a low beep, acknowledging it heard her. Too bad it couldn't tell her if it understood.

  The repair bots swarmed over each end of the pipe, securing it to the joints. Rachel checked the repaired valve that had originally been the reason for her arrival, and once satisfied with all the new repairs, turned back on the water.

  She heard the water surge into the pipe. She stayed at the end of the corridor as the pressure rose, all while watching the reaction of the bots. None of them appeared nervous, so she opened the valve all the way. A few more minutes and she was satisfied with the completed repair.

  With almost the entire work-day gone. She said towards her bot, "Shall we try the next repair closest to our location?"

  Only after they arrived in the new area did she remember they were in the location of the requested mystery repair. Mysterious it turned out to be. One valve stuck, and then suddenly working again. Then another valve further down the pipe locking open.

  Rachel followed them all, working each in turn. Again, all the fresh-water pipes, but this time the problems lingered in the smaller pipes supplying individual blocks of the sector. Even as Arthur and then Damien called her about residents complaining about water issues, she chased them down.

  Her bot hissed at the pipes. Rachel concurred. She wanted to hiss at it, as well.

  Rachel stood back as the valve cleared, glaring at the next valve down the line. As the valves before, it locked open a few minutes later.

  "Get the feeling we're chasing a moving clog?" Rachel asked. Her bot hissed again in response. "Problem is, what could be clogging a fresh water pipe?"

  Rachel was done playing games. The problem moved in a predictable manner, which meant something moving through the pipes even if she couldn't seem to be able to capture an image of it on her scanner. She knew of one way to pin it down, even though she didn't like the idea of going to the big hassle.

  With a call for more bots, Rachel closed off the valves on either side of the new problem valve. With the problem contained, she worked at a joint on one side of the problem valve.

  Her bot continued hissing, to the point Rachel stopped to look down at it. The bot stared at the valve, stopping only when it realized Rachel had stopped. It gave a questioning chirp.

  "If this is dangerous, I need to know about it," Rachel said.

  Her bot handed her a joint release tool with another chirp. Rachel looked between the valve and her bot one more time before starting to work on it again. Her bot might not like something, but it wasn't reacting as if there were danger in the area.

  A hose from one of the industrial bots snaked out as water began pouring out of the released valve, sucking it up with a powerful vacuum. Even so, the water hit her pants and ran down her boots. Both waterproof. They had to be, with her job.

  Her bot hissed again.

  Rachel twisted the joint and pulled it back. One of the pipe lengths separated from the valve, allowing even more water to flow out. Another industrial robot joined the efforts to suck up the spilled water. No clog there, as the water of the entire pipe poured out.

  She moved to the other side of the valve, releasing the other pipe. It dropp
ed away from the valve still attached to the wall, and with it another good healthy flow of water. Again, no clog in the length.

  Rachel glared at the valve. Another failure? Couldn't she have a different kind of problem today? Well, other than a massive hole in a water main. She didn't want to see another one of those for a good long time.

  "New valve, please, Sunset," Rachel said out loud.

  Her bot glanced up her, giving an inquiring chirp. Rachel sighed, wondering if she would ever find a name for her bot that both of them liked. After Tish's success in naming her bots, she'd tried to do the same with her own. So far no name she'd tried worked.

  She asked for a new valve again without the name. Her bot gave one more hiss towards the valve before turning away to head for the supply cart.

  She jumped back at the movement of something dark at one opening of the valve. Another bit of dark on the other side emerged from the valve only to draw back. Not a bot, not anything that should be in a fresh water pipe, or any pipe.

  A tail sprang out of one side of the opening, the mottled gray tail with short red stripes whipping out as the long flat toes of a thin leg emerged to grab at the edge of the valve.

  Rachel couldn't believe her eyes. An animal? In the pipe?

  CHAPTER THREE

  THEN HER EYES narrowed even as her bot started hissing again, realizing the colors and patterns of the tail looked familiar. Oh, she knew this creature. Knew it well.

  "You stupid thing, get out of there." Rachel put a hand over one side of the valve so it couldn't get away and reached in the other.

  Her hand closed around a wet and silky wriggling body. A hiss emanated from the valve as she pulled it out. The flattened toes of all four legs clung to the pipe so strongly that it took a steady pressure with a little wiggling to get the creature out.

  In the end, she held a glaring newt with bright yellow ruffled gills flapping in the air. The feet tried to pry her hand from around its body.

  Hissing came from both directions: from her bot and from the newt.