The Man in High Orbit

The Man in High Orbit is a main quest activated upon completing the quest Mostly Harmless. It takes place at the Olympus Orbital Pharmaceutical Station (OOPS), an Auntie Cleo installation. The Stranger is tasked with looking for Dr Jasper Low, and retrieving his means of access to the Compound Harvesting, Enrichment, & Molecularization Lab (CHEM Lab) on Gorgon.
==Walkthrough==
Entering the station, a dead scientist lying in a pool of their own blood greets you. Your companions will make a remark on this morbid introduction.
* Parvati: "What happened to these poor folks? It can't be the storm that did this..."
* Vicar Max: "Another science lab, another dead body. How refreshing."
* Ellie: "We were hoping to find Low alive, right?"
* Felix: "Hey, anybody out there? We're not here to hurt you."
* Nyoka: "Aw, looks like we missed all the fun."
* SAM: "Body bag dispenser empty. Please replace sack reel before disposing of any corpses."
From the initial room, there are three doors. If you have a Lockpick skill of 45, go ahead and pick the door on the left, leading to a storage room with loot (otherwise collect the Olympus Orbital Station Keycard later on). It also connects to the floor below, but unless you prefer to shoot your way through the room, return back to the reception area. The second / middle door leads again to the room below, but this time on a balcony area where you can opt to shoot the automechanicals from a vantage point.
Otherwise, interact with the intercom beside the right-most door to speak with Kelley Maurene.
* Persuade (65): Inform her that you have your own ship, and can help her escape Olympus.
* Lie (100): Pretend whatever she's scared of is already dead.
* Intimidate (100): Threaten to smash the door in at the end of a countdown.
* (If automechanicals downstairs were eliminated): Inform her you have taken care of the machines.
Once the door has opened, speak to her in person to learn more about what happened on the station. If you let her hitch a ride on the Unreliable, she'll also give you her laboratory headgear, the Cell Stability Mono-Lens.
Climbing up the ladder, your party will remark on the state of the station.
* Parvati: "This thing's orbit is stable, right? ADA checked before we docked? Captain?"
* Vicar Max: "Try not to think about the structural integrity of this place. Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned anything?"
* Nyoka: "Okay. All right. The sooner we're back on solid dirt the better."
* Ellie: "You think it's supposed to shake like that?"
* Felix: "Hey, what would happen if this station fell into Olympus? Would we just keep falling forever? Just asking."
* SAM: "Whether you're going up or down the career ladder, SAM units polish your path foward!"
You arrive into the Central Lab. There are a few methods of approach.
* Defeating the automechanicals: you'll face one tough Technician Mechanical, one Mechanical sentry, one Mechanical guardian MK1, and two Combat drones.
* If you have a Hack skill of 100, sneak to the terminal located in the center of the lab area where the Technician Mechanical is patrolling. There are a lot of crates to use for cover. From the terminal you can make all the automechanicals in this area non-hostile. The terminal contains information about the project Jasper was working on.
* Sneaking left, behind the Combat Drone until you reach a gap in the wall on the left, which you can slip through to find Jasper.
The rest of the Central Lab:
* There are bins with generic loot dotted around the area and within the side rooms. Some are locked and some are not.
* There is a terminal in a side room on the opposite side of where you first entered the lab area which contains correspondence about the Pink Slip protocol. It also contains a draft message written by Jasper that you can read and make use of during your conversation with him later. 
* You can pick up a Olympus Orbital Station Keycard in this room too. There is a safe requiring a Lockpick skill of 100, and a tunnel which leads to an adjacent side-room. This side-room contains a ladder that leads into a vantage point into the Command Deck of the station.
* At this stage, if you weren't able to loot the left-most room from the entrance of the station, this is a good time to backtrack and unlock that area.
* On the right hand-side from where you entered, is a large hanger door leading to the Command Deck of the station. However, if you're planning a stealthier approach, entering the Command Deck via one of the side-entrances is more advisable.
At the Command Deck:
* Right at the front of the Command Deck is a terminal that you can Hack (65) to make the automechanicals on the Command Deck non-hostile. It also contains more information about who initiated the Pink Slip protocol and security complaints.
* Going all the way down the end of the area where the terminal is, and on the left is a small side-room with loot and a unique weapon, Storm Cannon.
* The Command Deck has two elevated side-areas. One leads back into the Central Lab, and the other leads back into an elevator that will take you down to the automechanicals near the start of the mission (the ones Kelley was worried about).
You arrive at the room where Jasper has holed himself in.
* There is another Olympus Orbital Station Keycard here, a workbench, a large amount of drugs, and a locked bin requiring Lockpick 150.
* He can be pickpocketed or killed, taking his unique weapon Employee Benefits, CHEM Lab Passphrase, and Turbine Platform Keycard.
Otherwise, you can engage him in conversation. At one point in the dialogue, he asks the Stranger if they come bearing pharmaceuticals. Your party members caution him.
* Parvati: "I don't think this fella's entirely in his right mind."
* Vicar Max: "May I suggest caution? Hallucinations can be quite... tricky to navigate."
* Ellie: "Something tells me he's not looking for Caffenoid, Captain."
* Nyoka: "Hey, I'm... sorry about your friends. But... more doses ain't gonna help."
* Felix: "This guy look's like he'd had enough."
* SAM: "Warning: air filter replacement needed."
If you ask him about the device he's holding, and encourage him to take another dose of Sky High:
* Parvati: "Are you sure that's such a good idea, Captain? Seems like this fella's head's already in the clouds."
* Vicar Max: "I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Captain."
** Vicar Max: "I've got a hypothetical question for you, Dr. Low. If you were to say, encourage someone to consume drugs. And then that someone later overdosed. Would you be a murderer? Do you think in that case, a captain who accelerated a drug habit would be a murderer?"
**Jasper Low: "And the so-called victim in this scenario holds no responsibility in the matter? No, I don't think so. To each their own common sense."
** 
* Ellie: "Doctor's orders."
* Nyoka: "Cap, come on. This guy's got a problem."
* Felix: "Come on boss. The guy's already hurting. Maybe we shouldn't be pushing him like this."
* SAM: "Would you like this unit to play relaxing music while cleaning? If so, say, "SAM, play soothing jazz" now."
If you ask him whether he cares about his dead colleagues, he expresses that it's the reason he has inhaled himself into "such a detached emotional state." Your party offers advice to him.
* Parvati: "I did the same after my dad passed, 'cept I binged serials. Mr. Tobson said he was real proud of my work ethic."
* Vicar Max: "Grief is painful, but not facing it is more painful in the long run. Believe me, I know."
* Ellie: "At least you've got your priorities."
* Nyoka: "You know... day's gonna come when you find your senses again. High as you are, that'll be a long fall."
* Felix: "This ain't exactly my business, doc - but you obviously need help. Maybe put the inhaler down for a while."
Once you establish your intentions, he asks you to reactive the Electromechanical Turbine before he gives you the access you need.
With the Turbine Platform Keycard, you can access the locked area at the head of the Central Lab. Before proceeding up the stairs to the elevator, there is a whole bunch of loot scattered around the area, including a locked bin requiring Lockpick 150. Finally, take the elevator up to the turbine. Your party will comment when lightning strikes the elevator.
* Parvati: "Law have mercy."
* Vicar Max: "I am certain we are not all about to die horribly. Uh, relatively."
* Ellie: "Whoa! That was a close one, Captain."
* Nyoka: "Son of a petrol! Is there a single planet in this fucking colony that ain't trying to kill us?"
* Felix: "That was close! You all right, boss?"
* SAM: "M-m-malfunction! System processor is s-s-suffering an electrical overlord."
Interacting with the terminal in front of you, start the process for reactivating the turbine. You'll get a new objective to activate two generator towers (left and right). If you have a Hack of 100 or 150, run straight ahead to the opposite side of the area, where you'll find another terminal which will let you either deactivate or redirect the tower turrets to target the automechanicals. After activating both generators, return to the original terminal and activate the turbine. Your party will comment on the turbine's activation.
* Parvati: "What a machine! You sure we can't hang around for bit? I wanna get a look at its innards."
* Vicar Max: "Well, that's quite the impressive sight."
* Ellie: "Sure don't see that every day, Captain."
* Nyoka: "Another Halcyon problem, another massive fuck-off machine to solve it."
* Felix: "So uh - I wasn't really following what you did there. But I guess it worked!"
* SAM: "All weather is perfect weather for a fresh clean up job!"
Jasper will be overjoyed at the reactivation of the turbine. He gives you the CHEM Lab Passphrase and unique weapon, Employee Benefits. If you have already pilfered Employee Benefits, he will make a different comment about the situation.Jasper Low: "I was going to give you a weapon I modified, but it seems to have mysteriously disappeared. How suspicious. In any case, good luck." From here, you can either return to your ship, or continue to mine Jasper for information about the CHEM lab.
* Intimidate (65) and have read Jasper's draft email on his terminal: Threaten to send the draft email on his personal terminal
* Persuade (105): Persuade him that helping you with Gorgon could help him move on.
* Lie (150): Pretend you have connections, and will make sure no one knows he was involved.
Any of these options will net you the CHEM Lab Security Pass, which unlocks a hallway near the processing room of the CHEM lab to allow you to disable security.
You can continue to dig for information about Project Gorgon. Jasper warns you he'd have to be "dangerously euphoric" to tell you more. You can perform an increasingly difficult series of Persuade checks (45, 65, 105) to ask him three out of four available questions. If you go through with the Persuade 105 skill check, he will be unable to stop himself from having another hit (that will permanently addle his brain) unless the player intervenes. This requires either Persuade 150, or 1-Handed or 2-Handed Melee 105 (a punch in the face).
If the player asks:
*"What really happened in the CHEM lab?"
** He takes responsibility for the disaster at his lab, attributing it to him testing Adrena-Time on primals and not protecting his research team. He also admonishes himself for being a coward, isolating himself for his feverish work on Sky High, but in truth doing so because he was ashamed. He also expresses deep sorrow at the thousands of victims of Adrena-Time, and explained Sky High was meant to help focus him and prevent the guilt from crushing him. He made a wry observation that Adrena-Time was similar to his drive to develop Sky High. It was marketed as an elixir of productivity, so it made you feel guilty for not using it, but it also hurt you when you did use it.
*"Did you ever believe Project Gorgon would succeed?"
** He reports that as a scientist, he built his entire life on the foundation that science was a force for good. While he believed in Project Gorgon, Spacer's Choice gave up on it too early. He believed the compound discovered on Gorgon could have resulted in the greatest medical achievement since the discovery of antibiotics. However, Spacer's Choice was entirely focused on profit, not willing to commit the time nor the resources to developing the product's potential. Instead, at the first sign of mistakes, leadership panicked, pulled out resources, time, and pressured a marketable product.
*"I'm after Dr Ambrose's journal. What's so important about it?"
** As Dr Olivia Ambrose was one of the most brilliant minds in the colony, he doubted she would have kept a journal solely out of sentiment. He also reports that she never made it out of Gorgon alive. He expresses sorrow that the projects best minds were either killed, became marauders, or became him. If asked about Dr Blakeslee, he says he doesn't want to know anything about her. He admits his lab was a source of frustration for her, and the reason Human Inquiry couldn't do their job. He explains that the OCI pressured his lab, causing them to deliver poor samples to Human Inquiry, who then tested those poor samples on humans. This testing led to Adrena-Time, and eventually marauders. He also admits that he never had the courage to tell Dr Ambrose how much he admired her dedication to work, and expresses regret he never had the courage to stand up to corporate on behalf of his staff.
*"What exactly went wrong with Project Gorgon?"
** He explains that Lawrence Goodfellow and the rest of the OCI drove Jasper's team under unreasonable circumstances. They expected a miracle drug, but did not provide adequate time, resources nor personnel. He express his distaste that Adrena-Time was developed for the benefit of a few greedy corporate scavengers and not the benefit of humanity. He also makes the observation that these circumstances were not solely a result of Spacer's Choice way of business, but rather the colony as a whole.
When the conversation is over, it's time to return to the Unreliable.
==Quest Stages==
==References==
Man in High Orbit
ru:Человек на высокой орбите