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ONCE UPON A PET SHOW
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
Does love stand a chance among alien pets and intrigues?
Vallory Schist does not care about winning a prize at Redpoint One's annual Exotic Pet show. She must quickly find her rare Etrucian Daubpups a new habitat, and an attraction to Damien cannot get in the way.
Failing life-support systems at both the show and station keep engineer Damien Lysander busier than ever. Then he encounters Vallory and her heat-sensitive daubpups... and the fireworks when they are together.
Add into the mix the nosy Naughty Knitter's Club, interfering repair bots, a series of pet-nappings, and daubpups who will not stay in their cages...
How can love not bloom?
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 - Night of the Aurora (Salmon Run - Book 1)
Star Catcher Publishing
CHAPTER ONE
EIGHT, NINE, TEN… wait…
Oh no. Only ten.
Vallory Schist recounted the rounded sleeping forms of the Etrucian daubpups in the clear solid-sided cage. Each a different mix of colors, each with their thick banded tail wrapped around their bodies, their feet and nose tucked in.
She frantically started a visual search of the area, hoping the eleventh hadn't strayed too far. Could it be back on the passenger spaceliner, or lost somewhere on the docks of Redpoint One? She looked helplessly across the busy docks. Robots and small transports running along invisible lanes above their heads, with others moving more slowly along lanes marked on the floor with bright glowing-yellow lines.
People, families, freight, transports, and robots everywhere. Hundreds of them, and this was only the one dock. Other docks just as busy lay nearby across several levels. How would she find a lost daubpup in all of this?
"We'll have a transporter here soon," the black-haired deck-hand who had helped her off-load the big clear-sided cage said. He looked down at the large watch on his wrist. "They were delayed getting another cage down to the pet show."
"Understandable, considering it starts tomorrow," Vallory said, not really thinking about her words. They didn't matter. The delay meant she had a little more time to find her stray daubpup. It must be in the cage during customs check-in. How would she explain it to the show officials or judges when it showing up later?
Or if it showed up. If the ship left with her daubpup on it, who knew if she would ever track it down. She even knew which one it was. Penny, named after her copper-colored fur, had been notoriously antsy lately, to the point the other daubpups growled at her. No wonder the rest of them slept so hard. The trouble-maker wasn't with the group.
A long thick pink and copper-colored banded tail flicked out from behind one of the beat-up suitcases sitting on a nearby hovering luggage-sled. The tip of it twitched as it traveled across. It turned, going in the other direction, the fine fur flowing with the switch in direction. Penny, on one of her exploration forays.
Once certain that the deck-hand was busy with his wrist communicator, Vallory stepped to the side and reached past the suitcases. Her hands met with soft baby-fine fur. She lifted the squirming daubpup out from behind even as Penny attempted to twist out of her hands in order to continue her exploring. Big slanted eyes narrowed as one of her fingered paws caught against Vallory's shirt.
"Be good. Today is an important day," Vallory whispered to Penny as she stepped back to the cage. She didn't know if the daubpups could understand anything she said. Most likely no more than a dog or a cat, in any case, but she still talked to them. Sometimes they appeared to understand her.
Like now. Penny stopped twisting and turning to crane her head back towards her to sniff at her with a petite front nose at the end of a short snout. Vallory knew that look. She was being tolerated.
So long as that toleration meant Penny stayed in the cage at least through the end of Redpoint One's Annual Exotic Pet Show. Until she could talk to a few people attending in hopes of finding out what she needed.
No, finding what the daubpups needed.
Vallory cracked open the cage door, a rush of cooler air coming out. Good. The cage environmental systems were working well. With Penny inside, she closed the door and straightened just as the deck-hand looked up.
"Roy is almost here. Have everything?" he asked.
"Yes, everything is here," Vallory said, clasping her hands behind her back.
Inside the cage, all the daubpups woke up en-mass, all looking back at her. Then they moved to the edges of the cage to watch the dock activity. Of the people and small hovering sleds and vehicles moving back and forth.
Maybe she should have covered the cage. If they found something interesting they might all decide to escape like Penny just did. Vallory's stomach roiled at that thought. A worry she'd carried with her for the entire flight to Redpoint One.
Please. Just a little longer. A few days, she silently pleaded with the daubpups.
Penny glanced over her shoulder, the tufted ends of her ears twitching. She gave another sniff of the nose before she turned back to watch the strange world of humans on a space station light-years away from their home.
"Here we are," the deck-hand said as a large vehicle emerged from the busy docks of the Redpoint One and slid up next to them.
Perfect. Seats in the front, along with plenty of cargo space on the flat portion at the end for the cage and luggage. The man jumped out of the driver's seat and touched the brow of his red and white baseball cap. "Welcome to Redpoint One, ma'am. To the Pet show I hear?"
Vallory stepped around to the other side of the cage, her hand slipping down to double-check that the door of the cage remained firmly latched. "Yes, please."
Good. Almost there. Almost to the event she hoped would make all the difference for her little charges.
***
"Rachel is out of commission for a while, which means we pick up the slack," Arthur Getty said as he paced across the raised center portion of the circular main maintenance platform of Redpoint One.
Damien Lysander didn't groan as some of the other maintenance engineers did. No po
int in it. Rachel was alive, and she would soon return. It wasn't as if they didn't cross-train and pick up the work of anyone on vacation. With so few of them to oversee the maintenance of Redpoint One, trying to make the impossible happen was the norm.
He adjusted where he had his feet propped up on the railing of the platform. A holographic representation of one of the rings slowly spun, the image hovering above the round table at the center of the platform. A place built by a mysterious long-gone alien species, and now filled with humans. It took an odd sort to call the place home. That included the women of the Naughty Knitter's Club.
The thought drew his attention to the men standing near the door into the break room. The two new recruits the Naughty Knitter's Club found for them in the past few days. Who knew Rachel's group of crazy older women would do so much good.
Not that he was about to encourage them. Not the Naughty Knitter's Club. Give them an inch, and they would take a light-year. Maybe if they found someone who would end up working in his department of life-support he would feel differently.
"Damien, you take plumbing today," Arthur continued.
This time Damien did almost groan. He scowled at Vasiliy and Simon as they grinned at him from the safety of across the room. Let them grin. It would be their turn soon.
"We start with the emergencies and work down, as usual. However, I do want to remind you that today the Exotic Pet Show begins on Ring Three," Arthur said.
"You don't have to remind us. The station is crazy with it," Simon said, leaning back against a wall. His shiny black bot sat at his feet, the rounded oval dome of its back coming barely to his knees. The bot's eyestalks leaned back as if in imitation of the lazy posture.
"Which means we do everything we can to ensure the smooth operation of the event. This comes down directly from Director Stemski." Arthur pointed to Vasiliy. "We have an issue with the security portal on the 2B docking port. We have a passenger liner coming in today with a full tour that includes the show."
Vasiliy gave him a mock-salute. "I'll get on it."
"Are we interrupting a meeting?" a female voice asked from the main doorway out of the maintenance platform.
Damien didn't need to swivel his chair around to know who it was. Velda Morgan, the owner of the Northstar Bed & Breakfast, and the leader of the Naughty Knitter's Club who regularly met there every Thursday night.
"Of course they are having a meeting. Everyone is here, aren't they?" Eddie Gilmore said to Velda.
Damien finally turned his chair. Yep, there stood the full group. Velda with her bleach blond hair set just so in a refined knot at the back of her head. Eddie Gilmore, wearing a knitted blue and purple sweater, proving that the group did indeed occasionally knit. Daisy, with her natural silver-gray hair, hovered nearby.
Behind them stood a tall man in a t-shirt. Taller than the women, he also stood out because of his well-formed and defined muscles. He stood tall and at ease, despite the entire room staring at the new arrivals.
Oh no. They did it again. Found another new recruit.
"Anyone have any questions?" Arthur asked, his voice tainted with the resignation it usually did when he dealt with the women. When no one voiced anything, he gestured towards the door. "Then head out to your assignments."
"Oh, but you'll need to assign Mr. Carlisle," Velda said, stepping forward quickly, her high heels clicking against the floor. "We know he'll do well if given the chance."
"Just a chance, Mr. Getty," the man said, his voice as calm and at ease at the rest of him.
"Mr. Shay Carlisle," Eddie said, stepping to the side to put a proprietal hand on one bulging bicep. "He's quite helpful."
"He helped my husband with his back problems after all our gardening this spring," Daisy said, smiling up at the man. "He's the best physical therapist on the station."
"A physical therapist?" Damien asked, not quite believing his ears. "And you want a job in maintenance?"
"My position was taken by a relative, so no more job." Good grief, did the man ever tense up? Didn't he know this was the same as an interview? Shay gave a nod towards the ladies. "They described the job requirements. I can handle them."
Some of the others in the room lingered, some of them with twinkling eyes as if wanting to laugh out loud. Fascinated to see this meeting play out, just like Damien.
"Time to get to work," Tish said loud enough to carry across the room. Something Damien found amusing, considering how shy and reserved she'd been such a short time ago when she'd first arrived. At her words the last of the stragglers started heading for the corridors leading to their first jobs of the day.
Arthur wasn't distracted from the group in front of him even as Tish waved goodbye and left, followed by her three bots. Not usual, considering how inseparable and outwardly affectionate the two were now. Usually they would kiss before parting for their shift.
"Really, I said we could find our own people," Arthur said straight to Velda.
"If you could find all you need, then you wouldn't still have so many job postings," Velda said, not ruffled a bit by Arthur's straight-forward words.
Damien pushed himself out of his chair. Time to get out before Author exploded over that comment. No need to look at the console. He could find all the information he needed on the way out of the platform through an epad.
He stopped when he realized that it wasn't only his and Arthur's bots in the room waiting. Not as he would have expected.
A black and yellow bot sat patiently next to Damien's. Eyestalks straight, the scratches on its outer casings indicating it was one of the older ones. And it had eyes only for the new arrival.
"Arthur," Damien said. At Arthurs glare at being interrupted he merely pointed at the bot. No need to say anything else. The presence of the bot said it all.
Daisy didn't need any explanation, either. She pointed at the new bot, smiling widely. "See? One of them already likes him!"
Velda grinned as she looked at the bot with an expression of a cat lapping up spilt milk. "I told you he belonged here."
"I don't believe this," Arthur said with a groan, covering his eyes with one hand.
Shay glanced over his shoulder at the bot. Still relaxed and at ease, he said, "Look at that. I thought you had to assign the little guys."
"Or little gals," Eddie said.
"Nope. Looks like a guy to me." Shay turned back to Arthur. "Does that mean I get a try-out?"
"Oh yes, and you go out on jobs the first day." Arthur pinned Damien with a weighty stare. "Have fun with the training today, Damien."
Damien froze in mid-step. Drat. He didn't make his escape fast enough. "What? Wait, me?"
"Yes, you. Right now." To reinforce the order, Arthur tossed Damien an ID band.
Damien automatically reached out to catch it, wishing he hadn't. It in essence passed him the responsibility, represented by the high-tech band/bracelet they all wore to give them access to restricted areas, contact each other, along with sensors to detect dangerous substances.
Great. Start of the day and it was already sunk.
Nothing to do about it other than to get going. Dodging the Naughty Knitter's Club, he saw to getting Shay a locker of his own and a simple tool belt with generic tools and supplies. He stopped at a console to ensure the new ID band was showing up properly.
Shay followed Damien out of the maintenance platform, looking over everything as he did. "Nice design to the place."
"You can thank the station for that," Damien said, noting that the black and yellow bot followed behind Shay everywhere he went. No doubt about it. One had already decided the new person belonged to it.
A good sign, really. Damien should be pleased with it. Another new recruit, no matter how he came to be hired. Which brought to mind the nagging question of how the Naughty Knitters Club recently managed to find several people for the department. How did they do it?
No, not important right now. Besides, that was Arthur's job. Now was the time to find out where the new re
cruit belonged, and hope he would last in the long-term. They didn't need more two-week specials.
"Any maintenance experience at all?" Damien asked as they reached the travel pods at the transit platform the maintenance engineers used.
"Nothing to speak of," Shay turned his attention back to Damien, helping him load the pod with the cart of tools. Both bots, one belonging to each of them, slid into place in the back for the travel. Shay gave a lop-sided grin. "Unless you count maintenance on the human body."
Did he mean to flex a bicep muscle at that particular moment, as if to emphasize his words?
Damien didn't care. Not with so much needing to be done and them down one of their senior engineers. "Maybe plumbing will agree with you. The human body has a plumbing system of sorts."
Shay laughed heartily at the words, cuffing Damien on the shoulder, as if he'd just told a joke.
No joke to Damien. Rachel's department was without as many people as his.
Damien involved Shay in everything, watching the little things. He quickly noted that the newbie had no sense of direction, although that typically came later. No sign of recognizing the odd writing the station used and that no one could really understand. Except the maintenance engineers, but even then, they didn't read it. They knew by instinct what the writing meant. Hopefully that would come later, as well.
But, a few minutes into fixing a valve in a main plumbing run to one of the rings told him all he needed to know. No instincts about where the shut-off valves were or what tool to use. Shay tried, but he fumbled with everything Damien set him to doing.
Yet, the new bot stayed next to the man. Which meant the station wanted Shay around in some capacity. They just had to find out which one.
"Not that I didn't like the old job, mind you. Needed a change. You know how it is," Shay said as Damien completed the valve repair. Half to Damien, half to the black and yellow bot, and yet the bot kept both its eyestalks firmly on Shay's face, even giving a beep as if in agreement.
With one last twist, the pipe and valve were firmly connected. Damien said to his bot, "Turn on the inflow. Let's see if we have a leak."
Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) Page 1
