2 – Old and New
"I really don't see what this has to do with us, Elizabeth. I was told they were insane?"
The man and the woman strode down the hallway towards his office. The headquarters were still unusually quiet compared to what they had been used to, with a lot of the company's employees still working from Pandora. They were working on that, but relocating employees was hard — people didn't like change.
"That's right, Jeff. But there are… rumours… that people are searching for a cure."
"We never researched a cure, did we?"
"Not officially; it wasn't exactly top of your predecessor's to-do list. But some of our former researchers worked on — ah — side projects, for want of a better term, and it's very possible that if one of them decided to grow a conscience —"
"Yes, I see what you mean…" Blake sat down at his desk, and Elizabeth sat down across from him. "Alright, say one of our scientists was working on a cure. Why is that bad for us? Even if the Dahl scientist was to fully develop a cure, why is it a bad thing to cure these people of slag poisoning?"
"Well, first of all, they could sue us. But it's more than just that. Imagine the negative publicity! 'Hyperion accused of unethical slag testing!' My PR and Marketing people can only do so much, Jeff; the fallout could be disastrous."
"What are you suggesting? That we try and destroy this cure, this cure that we don't even know exists? Or that we track down these, these… these psychos, and kill them, to keep the information secret? Imagine if that leaked out. People already know that my predecessor was amoral, Elizabeth, that's not news. But I'm not going to follow in his footsteps. We're not in the Corporate Wars. And I'm not fool enough to go after the Pandoran rebels; I've met them, they worked for me years ago, and they'll be furious if we dishonour the agreement. I suggest you leave it alone. But if you really think something needs to be done about it, get R&D onto a cure. If we develop it ourselves, then we've seen the error of my predecessor's ways, haven't we? Do something to help his victims, rather than continuing to victimise them."
"But —"
"No buts," cut in Blake, a little sharply. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth, but that's my final word on the matter. Perhaps you should speak to R&D out on Helios. Most of our records on the slag testing are kept out there."
Elizabeth McHale bit her tongue and nodded as she saw herself out. She and Blake had a lot in common — they had both worked at Hyperion for some time, both nearly faced redundancy during the recession, and both made some attempt to keep their heads down under Handsome Jack's turbulent leadership. It was no surprise to anybody that the board gave Blake the presidency after Jack's death — he had been Jack's sole VP, after all — and he had quickly appointed her as vice president of external affairs, but Elizabeth was the first to admit that she and Blake did not often see eye to eye, especially on matters like this. This time, though, she was determined to act — for the good of the company.
Maya poked her head around the door of the Crimson Raiders control room. Despite everything that had happened in the past few months, it had changed very little since Maya had first set foot in it; Raiders recruitment posters mixed with defaced Hyperion propaganda adorned the walls, and the glowing war map shone on the table in the centre. Lilith, Mordecai and Axton were clustered around the table as Maya entered.
"…I know what the agreement says, but you know I don't trust them."
"Lil, you're being paranoid. Hyperion haven't broken the agreement yet. I'm not saying don't send some muscle, but I don't think we need to really bust a gut. Besides, if we front up with half the Raiders, armed to the teeth, that's gonna send the wrong message to Hyperion that we're not honouring the agreement."
"Why would we break the agreement?"
"That's what Hyperion're thinking. And remember, even with Jack dead, they're still perfectly capable of shooting Sanctuary out of the sky. Jack bought your story about being able to phase the city at will; Blake knows perfectly well you were bluffing."
"Yeah, I know. We still really need a new shield."
"The infrastructure is a huge problem; we left it all behind on the ground and we don't have a lot of spare room up here. Roland really didn't think this whole 'contingency plan' through."
Maya cleared her throat. The discussion stopped abruptly.
"Hey, Maya," said Axton. "We're just discussing what we're gonna do about Fyrestone. Mordy was just saying that —"
"Yeah, I know," interrupted Maya. "Sorry to interrupt, but do you guys know where Zer0 is?"
"Three Horns," replied Mordecai, "looking for fuel cells."
"Thanks." Maya left the room before the others could question her, but she could feel their eyes on her as she left. She pulled her communicator from her pocket as she descended the stairs.
"Zer0, you there?"
There was a pause, then Zer0's voice came through the communicator.
"Yes."
"Great. Are you almost done out there?"
"Yes."
"Can I meet you at the Happy Pig, please?"
"Yes."
"Great." Maya closed her communicator. By now she was used to Zer0's economy of words, so his brief answers didn't bother her — she hadn't heard gunfire, so he was probably looting. She walked quickly over to Pierce Station, registering but not acknowledging Mordecai silently watching her from the upper balcony.
A notification bell chimed. Elizabeth sat up, wiping sleep from her eyes. A ways ahead of her, but clearly visible even at this distance, was the distinctive form of Pandora. She was on the far side of the planet at the moment, she observed, as the autopilot adjusted her ship's course slightly, and Helios wasn't visible, but it wouldn't be long before she was there.
She left the cockpit and entered the small bathroom off to the side. Adjusting her make-up slightly, she straightened her ponytail and brushed the remains of her toast off her coat, then returned to the cockpit. She was approaching Pandora quickly, and Helios was now partially visible behind the blasted planet. Sitting down, she pulled her company ID from her bag and clipped it to her lapel — Helios didn't muck around when it came to security.
The autopilot gave Pandora a relatively wide berth as it approached Helios, slowing down. As she watched the glittering blue and black station growing larger in her field of vision, the radio crackled into life.
"Attention, you are entering Hyperion airspace. Identify yourself at once."
Elizabeth reached forward and pressed the communication button. "Elizabeth McHale, VP External Affairs."
"Ms McHale, a pleasant surprise," came the reply. "Docking bay nine, please."
"Roger."
The ship entered the cavernous space of the launching station. Elizabeth grasped the controls gently and guided the ship expertly into the docking bay, then shut the engine off. Straightening her jacket once more, she pushed the door open and disembarked.
It was cool in the open expanse of the docking area. Elizabeth strode over to the stairs, where one of the senior security guards was waiting. He glanced down at the ID card pinned to her jacket.
"We don't see you out here often, Ms McHale. What can I do for you?"
"I have some business to take care of out here," replied Elizabeth. "It may take a week or so."
"Of course, ma'am. You know where the staff bedrooms are, of course."
"Yes. And please tell the station manager I'll be along to see him in fifteen minutes or so, will you?"
"Yes, ma'am. Shall I have a valet move your ship for you?"
"Yes, thank you." Elizabeth gave her ship keys to the guard and climbed the stairs into the bustle of the launching station. Following a small crowd of tourists, she strode over to the tram station leading over to the central terminal.
If this woman, this… Doctor Samuels… is a former Hyperion researcher, what did she do to invoke Jack's ire? Did she just get too lippy towards Jack? Usually Jack just killed people who got lippy with him, his own employees included. Was she too soft towards the test subjects, who Jack seemed to see as less than human? She certainly seemed to be doing everything she could to protect the test subjects, at least to some extent. But she clearly had at least some self-preservation instinct, and Jack was clearly using threats to her family to keep her toeing the line. So why —
Maya was interrupted from her thoughts by the sound of an engine. She glanced up, the fingers of her right hand clutching the SMG on her belt, but relaxed when she saw a Runner approaching, piloted by Zer0. He pulled into the yard of the abandoned motel and shut off the engine. As he got out, Maya saw several fuel cells sitting in the back of the car — that would keep Scooter happy for a while.
"How can I help?" said Zer0, by way of a greeting.
"I found out who Sammy was. A Hyperion scientist called Doctor Samuels, who worked in the Preserve."
"I see."
Maya paused, expecting more of a reaction. Zer0 cocked his head very slightly.
"Did you find out what happened to her?"
"Well, I assume Jack tortured her —"
"Why?"
"I don't really —"
"What exactly was she working on?"
"Well, Tannis didn't —"
"Why is she contacting Krieg now?"
"I don't know!" Maya shouted, startling several rakk out of a nearby tree. "Okay? I still don't know anything except her real name! What am I supposed to do? All I want to do is try and help Krieg, help him come to terms with, with, with himself, or to research a cure for him! I just want to help him, because I —"
Maya brought herself up short, suddenly embarrassed. She wasn't usually one to snap like that, and she'd said more than she'd wanted to. Zer0, on the other hand, looked completely unperturbed.
"Because," he said, after a brief pause, "you care for him deeply, and you want to help him, but you don't know how. Because it is challenging, not just for him, but for you. You are not used to loving, and you want to be sure that you are doing right by him. There's no need to look so surprised; do close your mouth."
Maya's mouth was indeed hanging open slightly as she stared at Zer0's expressionless helmet, astonished that he had interpreted her emotions so accurately. Zer0 was a man of many talents, she knew, but in her experience, interpreting emotions was not one of them.
"I — I didn't —"
Zer0 sighed. "Maya, I'm human. I understand emotion; you weren't that subtle."
"I'm sorry —"
"No need to apologise."
"Well…" Maya paused, sighing slightly. "Do you think we should talk to Hyperion about this? I mean, with the agreement and everything, they might —"
"No," replied Zer0, "that wouldn't help. The agreement won't override their company policies, and I doubt they'd disclose that sort of information, especially as Jack was directly involved in it."
"So —"
"Our best bet is to try and get the information by stealth. The computers in the Preserve were pretty comprehensively wiped after Jack's death, but the information will still exist somewhere. I'll talk to Gaige."
"I'd rather not —"
"I know, but we really have no choice here. Hyperion won't just hand the info over. That means we need a hacker, and my skills probably aren't good enough to circumvent their security."
Maya pursed her lips, then nodded. "Alright then. But I'd appreciate it if we could keep this low-key… aside from the fact that we're about to potentially provoke Hyperion, you, uh… you know how I feel about… keeping private matters private…"
"Naturally," replied Zer0, with a reassuring :). Maya smiled back; Zer0 began gathering the fuel cells from the Runner.
"And Zer0?" The assassin turned his head back to Maya. "Thanks for helping me with this."
