The Legendary Junkmaster

'He said to find a solution! Not the problem!' Jason ecstatically thought about his revelation due to Captain Anderson's slip of the tongue.

"Captain! Is there a list of materials that I can use to fix this?" Jason shouted with a broad grin.

"There's paper in here. Just tell me what you need, and I'll find out if you can have it!" Captain Anderson replied as his expression turned grim. 'God, I hope he doesn't make too much of a mess! Otherwise, I'll be the one that has to fix it!'

"In that case, can you get me samples of all of the local flora that the base has in stock! I'll need a few other things as well!"

Jason took his time to explain the different sizes he needed of glass containers. This was then followed by additional tools that were not already in the room, workbenches, shelves etc. Jason was basically aiming to recreate his own store's workshop inside of this room!

Captain Anderson frowned as he read through the list. When it came to the materials, Jason had only asked for samples. Which made it look like he wanted to judge which of them would be best suited to his idea.

"Wait here, and I'll pass this along." Captain Anderson grumbled as he went to the door and knocked a few times. The door opened and whoever was on the other side took the sheet of paper from the Captain before closing the door again. When he returned, he looked at Jason with an inquisitive gaze. "What's your plan?"

"Don't know yet. I need to see what I have to work with first." Jason grinned before he returned to the machine.

He gave the machine another quick look and began to disregard any part of it that he did not understand. Which, admittedly, was most of it. However, that would not stop him. Jason reckoned he had hit upon what this test was really about. 

He figured that the brass wanted to see if he was capable of working on his own initiative. Since the machine was broken, could he provide an alternative solution, so to speak. As long as it did the same job, technically, he would have fixed the problem, right?

Jason chuckled as he thought about it. 'It makes sense, really. Everyone has their own skillset. So why shouldn't they use it to the best of their abilities?'

Jason then moved on to planning out several different ideas on how to divert the water from the old system to his new one. However, his approach would largely depend on what was available. Jason turned around as he heard the door being opened. Several Guardians filed inside as they carried everything that he had asked for!

Jason practically skipped towards them in excitement as he studied the equipment. 'This is some good stuff!' He had no complaints about his new tools and containers. The question was, did they bring any plants that he could use?

He instructed the Guardians on where to place everything to get himself set up before he finally opened the box that contained the samples he had asked for. He browsed through the metals and other solid objects that he could use before deciding on steel and some plastic-like material.

Then his eyes turned on the plant samples before his grin strained his muscles in his cheeks. Luckily for Jason, there were plants inside that would allow him to make his Basic Adhesive, Basic Natural Compressed Gas and even a type of plant that could act as a filter to purify water!

Jason quickly concocted a schematic for his own design before returning to Captain Anderson. The Captain did not know what to say when Jason started rattling off what materials he needed and how much of them. What really got to the Captain and left him confused was that Jason had asked for large quantities of a specific plant and its seeds.

If it was possible, he also wanted a few buckets worth of the soil where this plant grew! Although Captain Anderson was utterly confused about what Jason was up to, he still forwarded the request to the staff outside of the door. 

It was already getting late outside when the new batch of items that Jason requested was delivered to him. Jason immediately got to work by setting up his workstations to start producing the gas and the adhesive. While those were set to the side to do their thing, Jason began measuring the steel and plastics.

Needless to say, Captain Anderson decided to leave Jason to it as he dropped himself into one of the bunks. The sound of Jason hammering, cutting and filing down different things kept him awake for some time before he started to nod off. 'At this rate, the kid will sleep through half of the day tomorrow! He'll never make it to the end if he keeps that up!'

Meanwhile, Jason completely lost himself in his work as he was prone to do. Ever so slowly, a pile of differently shaped materials began to pile up in his workspace. Every now and then, Syssie had to step in and correct him if he started to waver even a millimetre off of his measurements.

She could not help but chuckle as she studied the schematics that Jason had come up with. It was indeed a genius idea! She may be an AI with direct access to his knowledge, but she lacked this creative flair that Jason had. 

"Well? What do you think?" Jason asked when he sensed that she was finished looking over his plan. Since Captain Anderson had gone to bed, he did not have to worry about keeping quiet during their conversation.

"What do I think?" Syssie turned to look at him while flashing a cunning smile. "I think they won't know what hit them by the time we're done!"

"My thoughts exactly!" Jason chuckled as he stared at his work so far with bright eyes.