I just finished exploring Vault 22 again in my current playthrough and I've had a revelation.

When you find and rescue Keely, she asks that you destroy the spores and then the research data, assuming that the spores and monsters within were created in the vault by the scientists working there. However, through clues found on terminals NOT tampered with by Keely, it's sorta obvious that everything you encountered that was a threat, was created by the bombs that fell in the war. One terminal mentions several specimens brought with the scientists: Venus Fly Traps, Mantises, and a type of fungus that infects it's prey and then reanimates the body to help spread it's spores.

This is a direct correlation to the monsters in the vault, and explains some of the things in other terminals. You only run into Spore Plants, Giant Mantises, and "Spore Carriers." All of these are clearly mutated forms of the specimens brought in by the scientists, but not actually created by any research being done. So it doesn't make much sense for a highly intelligent scientist character (High INT, high Science skill) to lose Karma for NOT destroying the data (or lying about downloading it to your pip-boy to Keely, as the case may be). You should have the option to explain your theories about these problems coming from mutations brought on by exposure to high levels of radiation, instead of hiding the data from her.

The results done by "vault alchemists" may or may not have been evil, but I'm sure the OSI knows what they are doing.

You can actually convince Keely that returning the data to Hildern is actually the right thing to do, and so it doesn't happen again.

Can you? What are the requirements to do so? I haven't seen any sort of dialogue that allows that... but then, I also never recovered Keely first before downloading the data to my pip-boy.

The research is vital to my "revive the Enclave" plan.

You can revive the enclave without the research. I think you need a good speech check though. I remember doing that quest, and I've always destroyed the research data until now.

The requirement is a science check. I think it's 70. What's this about the Enclave? What did I miss?

What do you mean revive the Enclave?

Maybe, somewhere, somehow, some Courier will develop a Plant Overlord which will command the Enclave and make it flourish.

Would that be the same OSI that hired Mr. Fantastic to work on Helios One?

Here's what your missing, the Vault Scientests took essentally harmless specismens from outside the vault and turned them into monsters. One of which the Giant Mantis escaped and spread across the Mojave. Where are you getting the idea that the specismens were mutated before being experimented on either? The specismens brought with the scientests would have been BEORE the doors closed.

They took basically harmless to human specismens and destoryed themselves, why you think its any safer with the OSI is beyond me. The OSI would be bound to make the kind of mistakes. "Oh lets see what happens if we apply this stuff to X" and eventually X will come back and bite them in the ass. Or worse some general will say, "oh lets weaponize it" If Vault 22 was a movie, the Courier handing over the data would be the lead in for the Sequel.

Vukodlak: They know where the Vault Scientists went wrong, they could probably avoid another Vault 22 happeniong.

When does that ever work in science fiction? When does picking up research that went catastrophically wrong and created a horde of monsters ever turn out all right? That's like saying, FEV only created, super-mutants, deathclaws, fireants and god knows what else, but I'm sure we can avoid any mistakes like that in the future.

And really probably?, you'd hang it all on probably? would you get on an airplane that would probably work/

The revive the Enclave thing is a joke about my ambitions for an Independent Vegas.

But Hildeburn actually comes across as a giant idiot and it was a mistake giving him the data.

"We're not going to screw this up. We're not Vault alchemists, we're the GOVERNMENT."

It was like .... oh Jesus, what have I done?