Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance)
Read Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) Online
Authors: J.A. Marlow
Tags: #romance, #pets, #science fiction, #sweet, #ai, #science fiction romance, #exotic pets, #sweet romance, #spacestation, #pet show
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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
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
Sample - Night
of the Aurora (Salmon Run - Book 1)
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 point 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.