Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 450: The first punishment.

Before the task even started, Sunshine regretted it. When she arrived on the ship, she regretted it even more. The first assignment was not simply repairing something; it was also cleaning the snack bar. It was in bad condition, the very same one the fight had left it in.

But it was worse, because there was a rancid smell in the air. Dry stew and other kinds of goo were stuck to silent walls and counters.

Nine had already arrived. He was buzzing irritably as he scraped stew from the top food shelves with his claws.

"That is disgusting." Sunshine frowned his way. "At least use a tool or something."

Nine’s mandibles clicked furiously in response. He sprayed his venomous poison her way. She leaped back, avoiding it elegantly.

Her hammer quickly made an appearance. As did Vortan.

The supervisor sent them both a less than pleased look. "If you two think this is hard, I will be happy to assign you worse duty. And if I hear so much as a hiss from you Nine or a bang from a hammer that belongs to you, Sunshine, you will both see a less than friendly side of me."

Sunshine put her hammer away.

"If you fight, you will clean the waste recycling equipment by hand." Vortan threatened.

Sunshine and Nine gasped.

"You are to clean the same area and cooperate until this whole room has been cleaned up." Vortan ordered.

They got to work as Vortan stepped away, scrubbing the soup stains that stubbornly clung to the floor. Sunshine huffed with every breath while Nine clicked his mandibles in irritation.

"You better not turn on any of your silly songs." He warned her.

Sunshine sneered. "You have no right to complain or order me around. We would not even be in this position if not for you and your stupidity. If you had not sprayed poison at me...."

Nine’s antennae twitched violently. "If you had not annoyed me by existing, human, we would not be in this situation. And we both know that you deliberately applied that bug cream. Do not pretend that it was an accident. And the wall heard you calling me a cockroach."

Sunshine smirked despite herself. She had said it to herself when she was alone in the bathroom, complaining about it. It had slipped her mind that the walls were the biggest gossips around. "Well, you do look like one."

Nine let out a sharp hiss, the sound echoing off the walls of the ship. Sunshine glanced nervously at the door, half-expecting Vortan to storm back in and order them to clean the bathrooms. But that did not happen.

None the less, she hissed at Nine. "Would you try to hiss a little less? If you make Vortan come back in here, I will rip out your mandibles."

They continued their work in silence, taking their anger out on the floor like it had offended them. If it could bruise, it would be red and weeping.

"If you were not so dramatic..." Nine started after throwing the rag down in anger.

But Sunshine cut him off. "Don’t even go there. I have not even called you brainless for throwing soup everywhere. What were you thinking in your tiny brain?" She glared at him.

They locked eyes, both seething, both aware that if Vortan caught them, the punishment would become a worse nightmare. So they got back to work, hissing insults under their breath, each word sharper than a blade.

The anger carried them for an hour during which the walls, shelves and counters sparkled once again like they used to.

Sunshine wiped some sweat from her forehead, thinking to herself that the cook had probably deliberately thrown more soup around to punish them. How else could they explain its presence in places where Nine had not thrown it?

"I will fix the floors this side." She gestured towards the area where the jukebox was.

Nine glared at her and reached for the bag of bolts first. One of his claws nearly sliced Sunshine’s hand. "Mine," he said flatly.

He flew over her head, landing behind her. "If you think that I am letting you anywhere near this music box, you are a fool. We are in this position because of your singing in the first place."

The tension between then grew even more. She turned and lunged for the bag but Nine pulled back and the two nearly toppled a shelf they had just fixed. They froze, both staring at the door again. No footsteps. No alarms. No supervisor.

If she started another fight with him, she figured she would be on the ship longer than she had to be. So, she stepped back.

"Fine," Sunshine growled, retreating. "Keep the stupid bolts and the floor. I will fix the cracks in the wall."

She found the biggest crack and started by pulling out a tangle of wires that had been fried by soup.

Nine watched her, his antennae twitching with disdain. "After fixing those cracks, maybe you can fix the crack in your voice when you are singing." He chuckled. "Oh wait, that is a permanent problem."

"For someone whose mandibles stink like shit, you sure talk a lot. If I were you, I would learn to be quieter." She retorted.

Nine hissed so loudly that she expected some poison. But there was no poison. And no Vortan.

By the time the snack bar was nearly restored two hours later the insults had grown creative.

"Your brood must be ashamed," Sunshine whispered as she screwed a nail into the wall. "Imagine having you as the representative for their species."

Nine’s mandibles clicked furiously. "At least I can represent my species. You are a female. The first female repairman after centuries. If I were a female, I would be ashamed to have you as a representative. Even singers cry when they hear your rendition of their songs." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

She snorted. "At least I can sing. You on the other hand...can you make any useful sounds other than that annoying mandible clicking? It sounds like explosive diarrhea."

Nine kicked a bucket of dirty water that was waiting to be disposed off manually. It spilled across the floor, soaking both of their boots. They stared at the mess, then at each other, then at the door.

"I am not cleaning that." Sunshine said through clenched teeth.

Nine crossed his spiny arms across his chest. "In that case, I will leave it here and we will both be stuck here forever."

Sunshine shoved him back.

They heard footsteps in the corridor and froze. Then they bent down together, scrubbing the floor furiously. Their movements were jerky and hostile. Their eyes laden with guilt. Every brush of rag against metal was a declaration of war.

They counted down the seconds to the end of their punishment, hating each other even more than before.