Goddard Goddard is the leader of a group of scientists in the Boulder Dome in 2253 . Background . In 2247 , Goddard was a former NCR scientist and an adviser to President Tandi . He was found to be bothersome , so Tandi assigned him to study old - world power and establish reactors in the eastern territories ( see : Southwestern Commonwealth ) . The job required him to be accompanied by a military escort for his safety . When he returned from exploring , he was again tasked by Victor Presper with searching the south - west region of the U . S . for more information about functioning pre - War power facilities . He sent back reports of promising locations he discovered during the voyages . His main priority is attending to the " dying " ZAX supercomputer , located in the bottom of the Dome . When he ' s not worrying about ZAX , he still has lots of repairs to keep him busy . No one is sure how long he will be able to continue his work in the Dome with his current levels of stress . Presper was particularly interested in his report of the Boulder Dome , so he sent a team of soldiers to investigate it ' s interior . Later , Presper inhabits the Dome with teams of scientists from NCR . Further on , in 2250 , Goddard meets another NCR scientist named Agnes at the Hoover Dam . Knowing they could not go back to NCR due to violent conflicts , the two went to the Boulder Dome by means of the trucker Eddie Galenski . Upon arrival , he realized that a few of Presper ' s scientists were infected with the New Plague , and had quarantined themselves from him with environmental suits . He believes ZAX holds the key to creating an antigen for the virus , but with a lack of a real workforce , the Dome itself is barely under working order . Relationships . Other scientists . Agnes : She is one of the only other scientists he trusts . They don ' t have any sort of attraction to each other , but Agnes cares for him , and he confides in her about the idea of locking the Baggers out of the dome . Donald : He knows that Donald ' s strength is efficiency , not innovation , and he tends to take him for granted more than James . He knows that Donald will do what he says , and that ' s all he really cares about . James : He knows that James is reliable , and he likes to take advantage of the fact that James is a kiss - ass . Nina : So far , he is unaware of Nina ' s dependency on him as a " father figure " , and now that she ' s comatose , he ' s more irritated by her presence than anything else . He almost wishes she would choose to die one way or the other so Agnes could spend more time on other matters ; he realizes that he can ' t say this because of the reactions it would draw from others , but he ' s definitely thought about it more than once . Paul : Paul irritates him with his quirks . He knows the guy is smart but doesn ' t trust him to do complicated tasks . Xian : He doesn ' t like Xian , mainly because he feels she isn ' t focused enough on the group and working as a team . He thinks she ' s just a stubborn kid who shouldn ' t be a scientist . Plus , she likes to challenge his decisions . Other groups . Soldiers : He didn ' t like Larsen because he questioned his orders . Mostly , he ' s upset that he tried to solve the problem by exiling them and it only made it worse . Even more ironic , he ' s now frustrated that they don ' t have the soldiers around to help out . Truckers : He thinks they ' re dumb - heads that are only good for doing grunt work . Truthfully , he considers the kids to be a liability , but Agnes told him to never say that in front of the truckers . He doesn ' t realize that Eddie would be happy to punch his lights out . Interactions with the player character . Other interactions . Goddard never has real conversations with most anybody , the player included . His objective is to keep the Boulder Dome in working order , and he finds talking is a waste when there are repairs to be made . He was to be the initiator of most of the repair / scavenging quests associated with Boulder . Otherwise , his interactions are vaguely outlined in a few dialogue pieces . Appearances . Goddard has not appeared nor is he mentioned in any published game . Goddard was to appear in " Van Buren " , the canceled " Fallout 3 " project by . It is not certain if he will appear in any future " Fallout " game .