The two men headed to the hydroponics section of the Vault with Jeff leading the way.

  “See, I had to do some reading up on one of the books from the cabinet over there to know what I needed to do differently from normal farmin’ but I think I am quite a quick learner.” He smiled widely as he showed Adam the setup.

  Rows and rows of hydroponic banks lay all across the room and in each was a large number of seeds, there did not seem to be anything of note yet however in the corner where Jeff was gesturing he noticed a single seed that had begun to sprout and started to reach its roots into the water below.

  “That's… incredible.” Adam said with some genuine awe. He did not know the first thing about farming, after all. He was a city kid. But to think this man not only figured out hydroponics in a short period of time he got the plants to start to grow.

  “Heh, it ain’t much of nothing.” He grinned sheepishly and ran the back of his hand over his mouth.

  “How long until we can start growing our own food? And will this be enough to feed everyone down here?” Adam asked, curious.

  “Well them’s two different questions, but I’ll start with the first.” He then gestured to a number of the banks along the wall. “Those are leafy greens, according to the stuff I read, they will grow even faster in this sorta setup and by my estimation it will take about a month.” He then gestured to the other banks. “The rest is the heartier stuff like potatoes, tatos, carrots, that sort of thing. Those will take longer, 2 or 3 months.” Adam nodded.

  “So until they grow I will need to find more food for the vault.” He said and then paused and looked skeptically at Jeff. “Unless it won’t be enough…” He said slowly. Jeff waved him off.

  “Nah, this place was set to feed several hundred, we will be producin’ enough food to even export it, if you are fixin’ to.” Jeff said with a shrug. “Though we’d all have to live like vegetarians if we ate nothing but the stuff grown in here. Which brings me to my next point and the reason I asked for you…” He said as he walked over to the desk nearby and produced a clearly handwritten journal, likely the text Jeff had been using to learn how to farm in a hydroponics farm system. He flipped to a tabbed page and then showed it to Adam. Adam quickly skimmed it but honestly it was both too technical and too boring for him to read on short notice but he did see a picture of a fish, so that was nice.

  “What are you showing me?” Adam asked, deciding to cut to the chase.

  “In here it talks about how the scientists who used to live down here wanted to turn the hydroponics system into aquaponics instead. They wanted to not only grow vegetables but also create a fish farm!” He said with some enthusiasm. Adam looked at him impressed.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Oh? That's possible?” He was curious and excited to hear the possibility.

  “I think so! Though I need to run some of my own experiments.” He said with ‘experiments’ in air quotes. “Fish might not be brahmin steak but if we can grow greens and fish I think, in the worst case, we could feed ourselves without issue.” He then paused and added. “More or less. I still wouldn’t recommend it.” Adam nodded.

  “So what do you need to do this?”

  “Some more hands, for one.” Jeff said with a single laugh. “This place was not built for one man, sure I can do it but it's a lot and my back isn't as young as it used to be.” He gently slapped his own back to demonstrate. “And besides that some fish, living fish. I can scale it up once I know it will work but I don't think any of this equipment needs more than a handful of modifications or something. I can ask around but there already water heaters and bubblers in the tanks installed in the event fish were added in. Guess the world ended for them before they brought any fish inside.” He paused and then added: “Or the fish died.”

  “As far as manpower goes you can ask around, I'm positive people will help out if you ask and tell them what it's about, people were already eager to help out with the exterior construction so I’m sure some will jump at a chance to get their hands dirty in the Vault.”

  “Can’t get your hands dirty, there's no dirt involved.” Jeff said with a shit eating grin. Adam laughed.

  “I stand corrected, but my point stands.”

  “I hear ya.”

  “And as for the fish…” Adam paused to ponder. “I think Salvatore will be making rounds with Chuck again soon. I was already planning on having Chuck stop by here for the Vault so maybe I could special order some live fish from him for you? Would that work?”

  “Ab-so-lutely. I think that would work mighty fine. Fishing in the river at Naper ain’t the greatest but we certainly did our fair share. For the promise of some caps I'm positive he can rustle up some folks to help him grab a barrel of fish.”

  “Then it's settled.” Adam said with a firm nod. “I think you have done great work here, Jeff. Honestly, I am not sure I could have gotten food to grow down here at all.”

  “Don’tcha be worrying your head over it. You do the dangerous stuff, if my green thumb can make life down here better for everyone then I’d say it's worth my time.”

  “Well thank you anyway, we all owe you one.” Adam chuckled. “Now, if you excuse me, I got a meal to eat and a sleep to catch. I got a long day ahead of me tomorrow.”

  “More robot fixin’?” He asked, curious.

  “No, actually. I have an escort job I picked up, helping some ghouls set up a new settlement.” Jeff nodded.

  “Well ain’t you a saint.” He grinned. “I won’t take up any more of your time. Go on, go hit the hay. I got it from here. Just wanted to keep you up to date.”

  “No no, I appreciate the update. Goodnight Jeff.”

  “Goodnight, Adam.”