Coffee Cup Dreams (A Redpoint One Romance) (8 page)

Nah, how could anyone think the bots were
dangerous?

Tish took a rag and wiped down the coffee
spots on the counter. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow. After a
good night's sleep, of course."

He started, almost spilling his coffee. He
didn't look at her as he said, "Need anything from your
locker?"

She wanted to ask what was wrong, but instead
she grabbed her coat and luggage keys from her locker.

When she rejoined him he continued to avoid
looking at her. Only stared at his coffee as he said sharply, "I
need a bot."

One of the normal-sized bots raced past her
feet to position itself next to Arthur, gazing up at him with both
eyestalks.

"Guide Tish Douglas to her room."

The bot whistled an acceptance, turning back
towards her. And still he didn't look up at her as he said, "I hope
you are satisfied with your apartment. Your next shift will start
at eight hundred hours. Meet me here at the main maintenance
platform. Have a good night."

And without a glance at her he walked towards
one of the other rooms.

She frowned after him. What had she done wrong
now that he wouldn't even look at her? Or did he regret their close
quarters in the access corridor when she got stuck? She didn't like
that thought. She knew she wasn't a raving beauty, but surely she
wasn't that repulsive.

"Or maybe it's because I work for him," she
mused to herself, staring at the door he'd disappeared
through.

Which made sense. If he was anything like his
brother, Arthur would have a strong sense of right and wrong. She
was the first to admit working romances didn't work. Look at what
happened with her and Walt, even with her having worked at his
company for only a short time as a temp.

Either way, it was depressing.

The bot gave one long whistle, ending on a
high note, moving towards her. She stepped aside when it appeared
to be on a collision course with her legs. It headed towards one of
the main corridors, whistling back at her in an obvious tone that
said "follow me." A hatch open on its back and up rose a pulsing
red light.

The bot stopped, turning tightly in a circle,
chirping at her.

"Okay, okay. I get it," she said.

So, the thing wanted her to follow it. So long
as it headed for her luggage and a place with a shower and a bed,
she was happy. At least for tonight.

"Just for the record, I don't think you are
dangerous," Tish said down to the bot firmly, saying it out loud
more for herself than for the bot. "In fact, I think you're
cute."

The bot whistled back at her in a nonsensical
response as it continued down the corridor. Past the transit
platform and into the wide corridors beyond.

She tried to memorize where they were going.
Really she did. But, after the fourth or fifth turn and an elevator
ride, she gave up. They didn't walk very far, not really, yet she
knew she wouldn't be able to find her way back for work the next
morning. And she wanted to be on time. She needed the
job.

They went through a wide door and into a
light-cream colored corridor. Tish looked back and tried to
memorize what the door looked like, determined to at least try to
remember.

And almost stepped on the bot.

It bleeped sharply at her, making her jerk and
snap her attention back to where she was walking. "Sorry about
that."

But the bot didn't continue forward. It made a
circle in front of the door and whistled again.

Number BDI-34. "This is it? You do realize you
are taking me back to work in the morning, right?"

The bot whistled cheerfully, the pulsing light
blinking out and retracting back into the body. Tish touched the
pad to the right of the door, wondering where the lock controls
were. The door smoothly slid open, to reveal a comfortable already
furnished living area.

With half an ear, she heard the bot behind her
chirp happily and the door close. But she didn't turn back to say
goodbye. Her eyes were glued to the view at the other side of the
room past the recliner and sofa of the main sitting
area.

She walked forward until her nose was up
against the window. Beyond lay a curved lush green world several
stories below her. Her hands fumbled for the control for the
sliding door. A wave of the smell of plants and moist soil rushed
into the apartment. Tish moved to the far rail to get a better
view.

And what a view it was. Forests, grasslands,
and even a few fields and gardens. She thought one spot to her left
might be a park. To the far left and right the band of land curved
upwards until occluded by the curve of the ring and the protective
semi-transparent covering of the ring itself.

An apartment in the side of one of the
habitable rings. How lucky could she get? She'd never been able to
afford her own apartment and now she had one with a view, and not a
dark dingy internal hole-in-the-wall.

With a terrace!

***

Arthur heard her leave with the bot. Heard her even talking
to the bot, although not the words themselves.

The 'boss' part of him was glad she'd become
accustomed to their work-partners so quickly. It meant she might
fit in. He might finally have one of the critical job positions
filled, once he figured out in what systems she might have special
talents in.

A prospect that should thrill him, but a part
of him dreaded. To have her around every day. In close quarters
while working in the sometimes-confining maintenance corridors and
crawl spaces. To see her fresh smiling face each morning as
assignments were given out complete with those ridiculous
holographic hair ties.

Yet, a part of him thrilled at that, as
well.

He didn't like any of it, he told himself
firmly. He was the boss. The station needed repairs and it was his
job to make them happen.

"Make sure it's cleaned before you put it
away," Rachel said down to her bot as she came into the break-room.
Her bot spun around, heading for the supply rooms with a small
hovering cart in tow behind it.

"Calling it a day?" Arthur asked, noting the
multiple dark streaks of dirt running through her short blond
hair.

Rachel nodded. She sniffed at the pot of
coffee, cringed, and poured it out. "Up early taking care of the
problem up in Sector 5220. Haven't stopped for more than a breather
since then."

"Thanks for helping Damien."

"You're welcome. I stopped by on the way back.
He has the big leaks sealed. Even Ricardo is listening to the bots
for a change. I think Damien had a talk with him."

Arthur suppressed a grin. "Which is why I gave
him to Damien. He'll whip him in shape."

"Great. How about finding me an apprentice or
two. I need to train up a few in my section," Rachel said,
scrubbing out the black scum on the bottom of the coffee
pot.

He tried not to sigh. "I'm trying."

While Rachel busied herself finding something
cold to drink after giving up on the coffee pot, he mentally
cataloged who would still be out on duty. They had a minimal night
crew, but he needed to make sure someone went through the area to
check on it through the night. Just to make sure the area was still
safe.

"So, who is the newbie?"

Arthur jerked, almost spilling his coffee. The
one subject he didn't want to bring to mind again. "Tish Douglas.
From Earth."

"Any maintenance experience?"

"None. We seem to have better luck with those
lately."

Rachel laughed, dropping a few ice cubes into
her flavored water. "Indeed. I'm glad the standards changed, or I
wouldn't be here. Working out?"

Working out in too many ways, but to Rachel he
simply nodded and said, "So far."

"Okay, I need help," Damien said through the
identification band.

Arthur set down the coffee, the flavor
suddenly tasting as vile as it looked and smelled. "What is
it?"

"Found another leak near a Sector bulkhead. I
need to shut down life-support in two sectors long enough to repair
it. That means your approval."

"On my way."

Rachel made a face at him. "No rest for the
wicked."

She didn't know the half of it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

TISH WOKE UP the next morning ready to attack life. A bot
arriving with a tray with all the fixings for coffee and breakfast
topped it off. And where else would she drink it other than on the
terrace?

The bot settled next to her, holding the tray
above its body with two arms, refusing to let her take it and set
it on the small round table next to her chair.

"Fine, you can hold it," she said to it,
pouring out a cup of coffee.

She watched as the creamer poured into the
cups, milky clouds erupting from the bottom. Smooth billowing
clouds, rising and spreading, the shapes appearing, disappearing,
combining.

With them her thoughts floated. From the last
days on Earth when the Gettys gave her a goodbye dinner. The trip
to Redpoint One. Her first view of the station. Of her first
meeting with her new boss.

She sighed as they dissipated into the black
coffee, turning the over-all color to a soft dark brown.

"This could get complicated," she said to the
bot.

It angled its eyestalks up towards her, giving
a curious chirp.

"Arthur," she clarified. "Workplace romances
don't work out. I should know. Too bad we don't work in different
departments."

Come to think of it, she hadn't met anyone in
a different department that she knew of. Maybe that would come
today. Maintenance worked all over the station, so surely they
would interact with other departments.

Maybe once she'd met more people she would be
able to put this attraction to the side. Find other activities,
friends, hobbies. Once settled, even perhaps find a romance to
distract her.

Gray-blue eyes from the midst of her coffee
mocked her.

She glanced down at her wrist computer. Almost
time for work. A cup of coffee, just her and the bot gazing off at
the scenery, a simple breakfast from the sample of items on a plate
next to the coffee makings, and she was ready to tackle the
day.

She stretched, pulled her ponytail a little
tighter to make sure the hair bands has settled, and then said to
the bot, "Off to work. Can you lead the way?"

She found the answer outside her door. Another
bot with a pulsing red light on the top of its outer shell waited
for her. Upon her exit, it took off down the hall in the direction
she'd remembered coming from the night before. The bot with the
tray headed off in the other direction.

This time she paid closer attention to
directions. A few more times and she was sure she would be able to
find her way by herself.

Damien and his apprentice Ricardo were seated
at a console in the center of the room. Rachel leaned against the
door-jam leading into the break-room. Two people she didn't
recognize worked to stack several crates on a heavy-duty
hovercart.

Rachel cheered her arrival by raising a
steaming cup of coffee in her direction. "And there she is, our
little newbie. Recovered from your plunge into the
action?"

Coffee that smelled surprisingly good,
especially compared with the coffee yesterday afternoon. "Someone
made new coffee?"

Rachel laughed at her expression. "Thank
Damien. He's the gourmet coffee maker around here."

"Because no one else seems to be able to
accomplish such a simple feat," Damien growled. He finished off his
coffee and handed it to a bot. "One of these days I'll get one of
you trained."

The bot moved across the room and into the
break-room. A moment later it reappeared with the cup topped off,
heading straight back to Damien. One of the men in the back of the
room teased Damien for his domestic skills, but a glare and a
threat to never make coffee again stopped it in a flurry of
laughter.