Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 656: Popular Artifical Suns.

The artificial sun hung over Fortress Four like a defiant golden eye, stubbornly refusing the new disaster to affect the base. While the rest of the world was swathed in a suffocating, almost pitch-black ink, the fortress and its immediate neighbors were bathed in a warm, evening glow that felt almost nostalgic.

Down in the courtyards, survivors stood with their necks craned back, shielding their eyes.

"I’m telling you, it’s giant mirrors glued together," one man argued, clutching a bowl of multigrain rice.

"The robot is just bouncing stored light, like car lights or something." Another argued.

"Don’t be thick, Bill," his friend retorted. "It’s a fusion reaction in a jar. Tank probably just put solar powered bulbs inside."

Up in her private apartment, Sunshine wasn’t thinking about the physics of the sun. She was thinking about the silence. She had returned, gone to bed and rested for an hour_ sixty minutes that she spent staring at the ceiling, letting the hum of the base’s ventilation lull her into a temporary truce with her own mind.

Fixing the rips during this dark period was very deadly. As desperate as she was to end the apocalypse, she was not looking for death. It wasn’t like the watchers were going to sit back and let her sew the sky back together!

When the alarm on her wrist chimed, she stood up, smoothed her vest, and headed for the Command Center.

The room was packed. The air smelled of refreshments, and Hades’ snack.

Hades was currently preoccupied with a stubborn foil wrapper as soon as Sunshine sat beside him, he gently placed it in front of her. "Barbecued goat meat, enjoy." He whispered.

Father Nicodemus stood at the head of the table. He waited for the rustling to die down before bowing his head. "Before we begin, let us thank the Creator for the brilliance granted to our leader. Sunshine, your innovation has given us more than light; it has given us a sense of time again. It has given us hope. May the Lord continue to do great things for his people through your hands. Amen."

"Amen," the room echoed, though Warren looked a bit bashful, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Speaking of that light," Ariel said loudly and quickly, "Our stores are blowing up. Every territory from here to the coast has seen the glow. We’ve received twenty offers for ’artificial suns’ in the last four hours. Some are offering gold, cash, foods and others are offering their children and parents"

Sunshine leaned against the console, a faint smirk playing on her lips. "The highest bidders get the first batch. Tank and our engineers are making more suns and moons, but we can’t supply the whole world. Limit the purchase to one of each per town."

The mood shifted when the holographic display flickered, showing a profile of Greg. The silence that followed was heavy. Greg, a man they had shared meals with, a man who had been trusted with the perimeter codes, was now marked with a ’traitor’ label in the system.

"The evidence is a mountain," Dominic said, his voice cold. "He leaked patrol schedules and gate codes, luckily we secretly change them every day. He doesn’t deserve a trial if you ask me."

"Agreed," Sunshine said, her voice dropping an octave.

The warmth from Father Nicodemus’s prayer was gone. "No trial. He is to be shot by firing squad in the community square at dawn."

Carson, sitting in the corner cleaning a fingernail with a pocketknife, looked up. "A firing squad? That’s it? Quick and clean? boss, the man tried to hand us over to the wolves. Why give him the mercy of a fast exit? What if he has a regeneration ability? We behead him."

"Carson!" Sister Anna gasped, her hand flying to her chest as she made the sign of the cross. "He is a sinner, but we are not monsters. Do not let this world turn your heart to stone."

Carson didn’t look at her. He kept his eyes on Sunshine.

"I’m not doing it to be merciful, Carson," Sunshine said, her gaze steady. "I’m doing it because I want everyone to see it. A public gruesome death is a statement. It says that traitors are an infection that needs to be removed efficiently. We don’t linger on them. We purge them and move on."

More than half of the members of the committee in the command center nodded.

"On the subject of threats," Dominic continued, "Paula’s intel was solid. Heath Burton is coming for us. He thinks Fortress Four is a ripe plum waiting to be picked. She is not lying to us, I checked."

By checked, he meant that he had messed with her mind, even though Sunshine had told him to observe first. Paula had punched him for it, but there was not one ounce of regret on his face.

Sunshine let out a short, dry laugh. "He’s going to find out we’re more like a cactus. But it’s not just him. As we get brighter, the bugs will come to the light. Humans from the wastes, mutated beasts looking for better accommodation...they’ll all want a piece of what we’ve built."

Hades nodded and spoke. "That brings us to Dr. Roy Fassbender. He’s pushing for a formal trade partnership. He claims President Finch has no intention of claiming our territory. Says they just want a piece of the stability we’ve got. The darkness found them here and they are afraid to make the journey back to Eden."

Sunshine winced, the name ’President’ tasting like ash in her mouth especially after finding out what his government had done. "Finch couldn’t take this territory if I gave him a map and left the gates open. He’s a politician ruling over a graveyard. Sooner or later, someone with strength and brains is going to take over Eden." She sighed, rubbing her temples. "But... in the long run, we need to grow beyond the West. Create the trade routes. If they want air transportation to get back to their base, we’ll provide it_ for a steep fee."

"Copy that," Hades grinned.

Sunshine straightened up. "System, put Wilbert’s maps on the main screen." She asked silently. She needed them all to know what earth’s problem was. Going forward, they needed a plan.

[Yes, Host.]

The room dimmed, and the air in the center of the table was replaced by a massive, glowing blue hologram. It was a map of the Earth, but it looked like a shattered stained-glass window.

"What am I looking at?" Vicente asked, He pointed to a massive, swirling black vortex near the coast. "Is that a weather pattern? A tsunami?"

"No," Sunshine said, her hands folding across her chest. The light from the hologram reflected in her eyes, making them look like cold stars. "Those aren’t storms. The black swirling marks represent the rifts in the fabric of our planet. The passageways for the mist, the mutants and our biggest enemies."