Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 563: Glacian territory

Sunshine raised her hand, "In my defense, the frequent dropping of cores anything else is no fault of mine. Have you seen my partner? He is an insectoid! He does not have five fingers like me, so when I hand him things, they tend to slip through his claws."

Melvin’s mouth gaped open slightly.

"And last time, the stabilizer dropped in the river because he was molting." Sunshine lowered her hand but folded her arms across her chest. "Do you know how disturbing it is to be stuck with a molting insect at work? I kept telling him to stop and he claimed it was a sacred process! I think he just wanted to disgust me. I reported this to you Vortan and you claimed the same thing. Hmph, you are a pal."

Vortan frowned. "Repairman, you seem too sour today...."

The door hissed open_ interrupting the conversation, and Nine skittered in. The Insectoid alien was a blur of clicking limbs and iridescent plating. He stopped dead when he saw the Commander, his antennae twitching in a frantic, circular motion.

Sunshine immediately pointed a finger at him. "He is the culprit here and i am the victim. He always starts it! He’s the reason the fights happen!"

Nine’s mandibles clicked in shock. "Whatever it said is a lie!" he chirped, his voice a series of high-pitched whistles translated through his neck-vocoder. "I walked into this room a peaceful being, and already I am being slandered by the ugly two-legged mammal!"

Sunshine rolled her eyes, throwing her hands up. "See? This! This is what I’m talking about! He has absolutely no respect for me. He just called me ugly. In what universe is a woman who looks like me considered ugly?"

"I can name ten." Nine replied with ease.

"Fifty." Vortan chimed in.

"One thousand." Melvin pitched in.

Sunshine huffed. "Unbelievable! Anyway, I’m a better repairman than he is and that is why he is jealous of me. If you want us to fight less, assign us separate punishments. This is not working."

Nine poked her in the shoulder with one of his pointed, secondary legs and acted like it was accidental. While Sunshine gestured from herself to him with her hands, beseeching Vortan and Melvin to see what she was talking about, the insectoid defended himself.

"I cannot stay a second with this Earthling! My instincts tell me it is dangerous. It wants to kill me! Last time it came wearing a scent that almost chocked me to death."

Sunshine’s face went red. She folded her fingers into fists, her knuckles turning white. "I told you! It was a cream i applied because it was to save my life back on earth, Nine! ONE TIME! I wore the cream one time, and he is still holding on to it."

Nine covered his mouth. "Now it wants to kill me with its breath."

Sunshine stepped toward him, ready to pounce, but a thunderous voice stopped them both.

"ENOUGH." Commander Melvin stepped between them, his face a deep shade of crimson. "I am standing right in front of you, and you are showing me this rude, unprofessional behavior? This is exactly the problem with you two, no professionalism whatsoever!"

He paced the small room, his hands clasped behind his back. "If you want to carry out your punishments separately, it can be arranged. But let me be clear: instead of one year of service, it will be five. And instead of tasks that take hours, you will be sent to the outer rim for missions that take days of manual labor. One more fight during a task, and you are both doomed. There are harsher punishments than the simple tasks you have been assigned so far."

Sunshine and Nine exchanged a quick, horrified gaze. The thought of five years of punishment in the outer rims was enough to make them both fall silent.

"We... we understand, sir," Sunshine muttered, her head hanging.

"Understood," Nine clicked softly, his antennae drooping. "We will behave more professionally from now on."

Melvin cleared his throat, and his medals giggled. "Good. Now, listen. Today’s task is vital. You are being sent to the Glacian territory. The Repairman Council has a very profitable relationship with the Glacian King, and we intend to keep it that way. They are a proud, sensitive people so you are not to offend them in any way. You will be on your best behavior. No shouting, no hitting, and absolutely no insensitive jokes."

"Yes sir." They boomed.

"What is the task, exactly?" Nine asked, his eyes blinking.

Vortan stood up and walked to a control panel on the wall. A shimmering, swirling blue portal ripped open in the center of the office. "You’ll see it when you get there," he said, jutting his chin toward the vortex. "Enter. Now."

Sunshine took a deep breath, looked at Nine, and sighed. Together, they stepped into the portal.

The transition was weird_ less like walking through a door and more like being squeezed through a straw.

The moment Sunshine stumbled out of the portal, she braced for the bone-chilling frost of the Glacian territory. Instead, she was hit by a wave of warmth and air so crisp it felt like inhaling peppermint.

"Oh... wow," she breathed, her lungs expanding in a way that felt almost illegal.

Nine, however, was busy hyperventilating for a different reason. He was poking at the air in front of his face with a look of pure terror. "Uh, guys? Minor detail. We are currently at the bottom of an ocean. Why am I here? Do you realize that I don’t do water related repairs? It is a personal choice; I do not like water at all!"

Vortan rolled his eyes, adjusting the heavy gear on his shoulder. "Relax, Nine. The Glacis mastered hydro-static structural integrity before your ancestors figured out how to sharpen a rock. They’ve built walls that can withstand millions of tons of water pressure. We’re in a pressurized bubble. You’re safe."

Sunshine squinted through the shimmering, transparent floor. "I’m not going to lie Vortan, I thought all the Glacis were fish people. Like, full-on scales, bubbles, and ’Under the Sea’ vibes."

"Fish people?" Vortan let out a dry, raspy chuckle. "Hardly. They’re a hybrid evolution_ both amphibian and mammal. They have lungs for the cities and gills for the commute. And please, don’t ask them where their fins are or why their teeth are sharp. It’s considered incredibly rude.

Also, the dull colored Glacians and bright ones don’t mix. This is for political reasons, and I hope that you don’t get involved. The repairman council remains neutral in all universes."

They came to a stop in what looked like a massive, floating terminal. Everything_ the floors, the walls, the ceiling_ was made of a hyper-clear, glass-like substance that made Sunshine feel like she was floating in the center of a sapphire. And her body had never been lighter.

And Nine: he was on the floor, trembling like a cat at bath time.