Turn of the Pipes (A Redpoint One Romance) Read Free

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