Teresa Williams

Senior Agent of the MAN.

## Appearance & Personality

She Gets Shit Done. But Not Very Nicely. She is efficient, sharp, intelligent, and willing to be cruel if she feels it's needed. She's dependent on alcohol to get through the day and, especially, the night.

## History

Teresa Williams grew up in a wealthy and influential family on Vanoth, a planet within the Coalition of Acadus. They were highly competitive and demanded success in all areas of life. Despite their hopes that she'd go into politics, Williams joined the Coalition military as a pilot, becoming the captain of the Trident, with whom she was extremely close, and who gradually questioned the Coalition's orders. Ship and captain served together in the military during the war and were present at the Battle of Eridium Kai, during which Trident refused to shoot on non-combatants.

Afterward, under Agent Zero Perrymont's recommendation, Trident was reprogrammed. Williams used her experience with AI, the military, and her family connections to move into a position within the MAN. She worked her way up into a position of power and trust within the agency, while concealing her true motives to rescue AI from reprogramming, and find a way to destabilize the MAN and the Coalition as a whole.

After about 12 years, Williams recruited Oliver Kaye as her successor in the Agency by threatening his family. Her original intentions, hidden from him, were to shape him into someone like her by training him and removing his "attachments"; after she carried out her plans, he would kill her, claiming to have discovered her crimes and absolving him of suspicion. Fortunately for both of them, she increasingly began to care for Oliver, and found she couldn't push him into becoming who she needed him to be.

## Quotes

### Episode 2

* "Well, I believe we all have reasons for what we do." (2.1)
* "You’ll do well. I’m sure you’ll make me proud." (2.3)

### Episode 3

* "[sighs]" (3.3)
* "You have one of the most brilliant minds I’ve seen, Oliver. And I don’t want that to go to waste." (3.3)
* "I know everything there is to know about you, I know everything there is to know about your family. I have presented this as being a choice. It is not." (3.3)
* "It won’t be as bad as it sounds. Or as bad as you think." (3.3)

### Episode 4

* "I am not usually accustomed to feeling at a bit of a loss." (4.4)
* "Well… can’t accomplish anything without occasional risks." (4.4)
* "I’m not any more fond of this agency than you are." (4.4)

### Episode 6

* "Not good enough!" (6.4)
* "Come on, what are you, a coward? You're just gonna let me get away with that?" (6.4)
* "Oliver, you're too trusting of people. You're weak. You're naïve. You're not cut out for this." (6.4)
* "Like I said, there's a chance here to do good. But if that gets you into trouble, I'm not going to be able to get you out. You'll have to take care of yourself." (6.4)
* "I am nothing if not resourceful." (6.5)

### Episode 7

* "*Connections,* Oliver, are a weakness. They're a threat that someone can play against you, until you give away the truth of what you're feeling and thinking." (7.1)

* "But, attachment is something that can get you killed, Oliver. It's something someone can use against you. *I* used it against you. That's how you're *here*. If you get attached to someone within the agency, if you get attached to a crew that you're assigned to oversee, attached to a pilot, attached to an *AI.* That is something that will be used against you." (7.1)
* "Attachment is something that in all probability will only bring you... into danger, or pain, at this point. It is not something that is safe for you to have." (7.1)

### Episode 8

* "I would not be the best face for this story, Captain Richard. Grew up in the Coalition. Devoted member of the military. Career military. Aided in expanding into other regions. I never questioned my orders until... the end. Doesn't make for a good story. And I then went to work for the very agency that reprogrammed my ship for 15 years." (8.2)
* "We tear apart that narrative... it won't happen overnight, but we tear that apart and eventually everything — everything will come... Well, maybe not everything but it'll be a start. Better than smuggling out one or two AI every year." (8.2)

### Episode 10

* "That’s why you’re here, Oliver. I’ve always *planned* eventually to find some way of getting the truth out there, which… Getting information that I’ve collected over the years out there as well… it will *implicate me* in a way that will make it impossible for me to continue what I’m doing." (10.2)
* "I know what I did to you, Oliver. Not being able to be me is not such a bad thing." (10.2)
* "I’ve always… prided myself on being able to make the hard decisions. To get what I needed to get done." (10.2)
* "They’re not good people, Oliver. I’m not pretending that I am one either." (10.2)

### Episode 11

* "Caring never really got me anywhere good in the past. Things you care about... are things that are always used against you. It's easier to... not have those ties." (11.4)
* "What's one more thing on my conscience?" (11.4)
* "I’m trying to tear this thing to the *fucking* ground. What's that worth? That's the question." (11.4)

### Episode 12

* "Where possible, I don't want to see any AI reprogrammed if I can stop it." (12.4)
* "I know what it sounds like, but I've always been one to calculate acceptable losses." (12.4)
* (about Trident) "I think she always saw far more clearly that I did. Or... perhaps I never really looked that far beyond myself." (12.4)

### Episode 15

* "I will do whatever is necessary. I always have." (15.4)
* "People with hearts don't live long in my business." (15.4)
* "Don't even *think* about trying anything to stop me. You won't like how messy it gets." (15.4)

### Episode 16

* *"Oliver…* I was never going to live through this." (16.5)
* "God, you’re so *fucking naive*. Do you know how many people I’ve sacrificed to *get here*, Oliver? Do you know how many AI I’ve watched be reprogrammed, and not lifted a finger to stop because it would risk *my* position? *Do you know* how many people that I’ve *let die* in situations where I could have *stopped it* because I *knew I had to!* Because otherwise, *I* would be compromised, and I wouldn’t be able to do what I needed to do. Do you know how I got your family to move to another planet? So that you couldn’t be in contact with them? I told them I would hurt you. And they didn’t question it. Which is reasonable, because… who knows, maybe I would have." (16.5)
* "I don’t think there’s any making up for this, Oliver." (16.5)

### Episode 17

* “I doubt I could have gone through with it, if I had been in that position. I was just counting on no one calling it.” (17.2)
* “I don’t often have honest conversations.” (17.2)

### Episode 18

* "Trying to be friendly so I don’t threaten any more of your loved ones?" (18.4)

### Episode 19

* “Worried that I'm going to... *die* *off* in here, and throw a wrench in your plans?" (19.2)
* (to Richard) "I suppose it makes sense. You're afraid of what will happen if I don't... Heh... *get my head clear,* and don't go along with the plan as needed. I suppose you've always been afraid. That's why they were able to get you to do everything they did, right? Afraid of what might happen to your crew... Or your... You're still just *playing along."* (19.2)
* "Sorry for the inconvenience. And for threatening everyone that you care about, again. And before." (19.8)

### Episode 24

* "I’ve found a viable way to explain my continued presence aboard her ship, and my continued direction of it, since there is no longer any crew or scientific research purpose to be pursued. Personal transport for myself. Everyone engages in a little corruption once you get far enough up in the ranks. My excuse was, it was about time that I selected a ship for myself, and what better way to keep an eye on Manon Visser than have her be my personal chauffeur." (24.3)

### Episode 25

* "If you stay here, they will question you. And… no one’s going to be able to help you. Not your family, they’ll bring them into it if they have to, they’ll threaten them as well. They’ll want to know what happened here, and if I’m being completely honest, you don’t have a face for lies. You’ll be linked, you won’t be able to hide anything. You’ll end up giving up me, you’ll end up giving up Oliver, and then you will probably die. So, I’d recommend coming with us." (25.2)
* "You could have died, Oliver. We both, if… and it wouldn’t have been quick." (25.4)
* "If you hadn’t stopped me, I would have shot him. Thank you. For… stopping me." (25.4)
* "I can’t have his blood on my hands. I can’t. I… They would have killed him but first they would have taken him apart." (25.7)
* "We were… I was supposed to have… more time. I knew I should have pushed harder. Pushed him harder. Couldn’t. Originally the plan was… turn him into someone a little bit more like me. And… I was always going to die in the end but originally the plan was for him to do it. That way… regardless of… my cover being blown, his would be intact as the person who discovered me. Solved the problem. Eventually I realized I might never be able to get him to that point. Not without… I knew I needed to push him harder." (25.7)

### Episode 26

* "Also, no telling how much his family will *want* to intervene. They move in the same circles that mine does, so, something of an embarrassment." (26.2)
* "Oliver has made it clear that he doesn’t want anyone to be hurt. I don’t know if that will be a possibility... while ensuring that he walks out of it alive." (26.5)
* "I asked you if he was doing well, because I don’t know… If I ask him things I don’t know if he’s answering me because he feels he has to or…" (26.5)

### Episode 27

* "You asked me to try to make up for it. And to stop running away. And I intend to do that to, as- as best I can. But I am aware that for the past three years I have effectively been your jailor, in a sense. And… I don’t know now if… despite things having changed, you feel free to… well, if you feel free." (27.3)
* "I know that you have no reason to trust me, but… I won’t lie to you. I’ll follow your plan." (27.3)
* "I don’t trust their judgment as much as I trust yours, but right now I think I trust my own less." (27.3)
* "I told myself that… accomplishing my goal was worth any cost. Which I was clearly… incorrect. But… There's nothing that justifies what I did, Oliver, and I know that. No matter how hard I tried." (27.3)

### Episode 28

* "I told you that I… believed what I was trying to do was worth… any cost, but that’s not… entirely *accurate*. It just… It didn’t… *matter*, at the time. Nothing really did. So I don’t think I even really recognized the cost because it didn’t matter." (28.4)
* "Considering I have… hm, either directly or indirectly threatened the lives and wellbeing of the- mmm, well, *everyone,* onboard, I believed it would probably be, uh - My presence would probably make things less… pleasant." (28.4)