There was a saying on the Migrant Fleet, "Test, and test again. And when you're sure it works, test it one more time."
And Tali had every intention of living up to her people. So before she started using the device in earnest, she needed to see just what it was capable of.
"Gabby, what's the status on..." Ken started to say, before he stopped speaking abruptly and stared off into space.
Gabby looked over to see Ken standing limply. "Ken, you okay?" she asked and started to reach for him before Tali hit her with the device as well.
Tali stared at them for a while, struggling to get over the emotions she was feeling. There was a part of her that still thought of these two as her friends. They had never been as unfriendly as some of the other humans of the Normandy. Always included her in their inside jokes, never looked down on her for being an alien.
"But that's what you thought about Kasumi, too," Tali thought to herself. "And look how that turned out for you. They're just like all other humans: using you for their own benefit. They're not your friends. They're just test subjects."
But still, it was hard to let that go. That part of her that still thought of herself as a member of this crew. Once she started this, there was no turning back. What she planned to do was an unforgivable betrayal.
"Just like how Shepard betrayed you," said that voice in her head again. "Like they all betrayed you by supporting Shepard. But once you're done with them, they'll never do anything like that again."
Forcing herself to shut off her emotional attachments, she started her first test.
"Ken, Gabby, can you hear me?"
"Yes," they both said in unison.
"Are you ready to obey my instructions?"
"Yes," they repeated, and the sound of it sent a thrill up her spine. Just like the last time, they were putty in her hands. She could tell them to do anything right now, and they'd do it. But for right now, she was keeping things simple. A test of just how powerful the human mind was at ignoring the sensory input of the body.
"When I wake you up from this trance, I will be completely invisible to you both. You will not see me, hear me, or make any acknowledgment of my presence. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"No matter what happens, or what I do to you, neither of you will realize that I'm in the same room with you. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
Part of her was sure this wasn't going to work. Sure, she'd convinced Joker to see everyone on the ship as being stark naked, but she imagined the perverted pilot did that on his own just fine. Could she actually make this work?
"When I knock on the bulkhead," Tali said, "you will wake from your trance. Do you understand?"
"Yes," they spoke in emotionless tones.
Tali raised a hand and knocked on the metal wall. Both of the humans blinked, and immediately returned to their work.
"Ken, what were you about to say?" Gabby asked.
Ken shook his head, as if shaking off a light sleep. "Oh, sorry. Spaced out for a moment. Was going to ask what the status was on the starboard thruster array."
"Seems to be alright. Might want to ask Tali to take a look when she shows up, though."
"Yeah, that girl can spot problems I'd never see if I spent a day staring at it," Ken said. "Wonder where she got off to."
"I'm right here," Tali said, testing the waters. But neither of the humans responded.
Gabby let out a sad sigh. "Probably off thinking about what happened with Shepard. Poor thing."
"Yeah, can't imagine what she must be going through," Ken said.
"I BET YOU CAN'T!" Tali yelled directly into Ken's ear. The male engineer didn't budge, only pausing to reach up and wiggle a finger inside his ear canal.
"Hopefully, she... ow!" Gabby let out a light cry, rubbing at the spot on her back where Tali had firmly jabbed her with one of her tools. "Just got a little cramp."
"Pain," Tali thought to herself, mentally taking notes. "One sensation that the human mind can't block out. Could be the best way to manipulate them."
Ken smirked at her. "You need me to massage it?" he joked.
Gabby gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "That'll be the day."
And as she saw the long, lingering glance that passed between the two of them, a thought sprang to Tali's mind. "Pain maybe... but what about pleasure?"
Tali waited until Gabby walked away, moving to another part of the room to check something on Tali's station. Steeling her nerves, she walked up behind Ken and wrapped her arms around his body, putting one hand down inside his uniform pants.
"Just a test subject," Tali repeated out loud to herself, but still she felt terrified as she felt around inside Ken's clothing. Finally, her fingers gripped around his penis, and Ken let out a surprised gasp. For a second, she was sure that the mind control had worn off, and she'd soon find herself having to explain why she was standing behind him with her hand down his pants.
But Ken soon shrugged off the sensation, and Tali slowly pulled Ken's stiffening cock out of his pants.
Working her way underneath Ken's console and crouching in front of his crotch, she took a while just to look at his exposed penis. She'd only seen one other human's "equipment" before today, and it had been on a hazy vidscreen. And she'd only seen it for a few seconds before Dr. Chakwas had concealed it down her throat. It surprised her how similar it was to a quarian male's, although she'd only seen those before in medical texts. She had no idea if Ken's was large or small by human standards, but as she ran her fingers up and down its length, she watched in fascination as it swelled with blood.
Ken's body stiffened slightly, and Tali was sure again that she'd pushed things too far. But even as he looked down, his brain refused to tell him what his eyes should be seeing: his cock out of his pants, currently being stroked by a terrified quarian. He returned to his work without a second thought.
Getting bolder, Tali began stroking Ken's cock faster. The human stopped working and gripped his console with tight fingers, the pleasure of what Tali was doing to him working its way past all her programming. After a few minutes of stimulation, he let out a choked moan.
"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed, as Ken's cock discharged onto her. His human seed splattered against her bio suit, leaving white streaks dripping down her mask onto her chest. Too surprised to do anything else, she kept jerking at his cock, until the last few spurts of cum dripped down onto her.
"Ken, you okay?" she heard Gabby say, and quickly returned Ken's flaccid cock back to his pants.
"Uh, yeah," Ken said, while Tali crawled around him and got back to her feet. "Just had a cramp of my own, I think."
Tali wiped at the sticky fluid dripping down her body. Part of her knew she should feel disgusted, but mostly she felt... excited.
The device worked beyond her wildest expectations. And now she knew exactly how she would take control of the Normandy's crew: through their hormones. The one urge they couldn't deny, the one that governed them above all others.
Humanity's own horniness would be their downfall.
And Tali knew exactly who she would put to the test next.
* * *
"Tali, this is a surprise," said Kelly, as the quarian stepped into her office. "What can I do for you?"
Tali sat down opposite Kelly, noting with satisfaction that Kelly made no indication of having seen her just seconds earlier. Tali didn't say anything, simply staring at Kelly, assessing the young yeoman.
For a long time now, Kelly had been trying to get Tali into her office. Putting on a big show about caring about what Tali felt, but Tali knew now that Kelly didn't really care. All that mattered to her was whether or not Tali was properly motivated, whether she'll play her part in the mission without raising a fuss.
Well, Tali had finally visited Kelly's office. But it wasn't therapy she had in mind for today.
"How are you doing, Tali?" Kelly asked her, looking a little awkward as her visitor sat and said nothing. "I know you've been very upset recently, and I want you to know you can tell me whatever you want."
Tali smacked her lips together. "I'm fine," she finally said.
"Tali, I... oh," Kelly shuddered slightly, shifting in her chair. "I want you to open up to me. Tell me anything that's bothering you. Everything that goes on in this office is under the strictest of confidences. Shepard, the rest of the crew, nobody will know about it."
"I'm not sure what to say," Tali said, staring at Kelly as she spoke.
A light flush was coming to Kelly's face, but she kept up her professional demeanor. "Just say whatever comes to mind."
"Actually," Tali said, "I've been feeling a bit better lately. I've found a way to take control of my life again."
As Tali spoke, Kelly started to look more and more flustered. Tali could see the yeoman's nipples stiffen underneath her uniform, and sweat began to bead on her forehead.
"Every word I speak will cause you to become aroused," Tali had given Kelly the command several seconds earlier. "The more I talk, the more horny you'll get, until you won't be able to control yourself anymore."
"That's... that's good to hear," Kelly was saying, breathing heavily. "But I want you to know that you can... can always come to me at any time."
Leaning back in her chair, Tali crossed her arms and stared at Kelly. "Thank you for the offer, Kelly. I'm really glad you're willing to be such a friend to me."
"Not... a problem," Kelly was biting her bottom lip, looking ready to explode from the sensations she was trying to suppress. "Tali, I'm sorry, but I just remembered I have another appointment coming up soon. Could you maybe stop by a little later?"
"But I have so many other problems I want to tell you about," Tali said, a taunt in her voice as she put her feet up on Kelly's desk. "I feel like I could talk to you for hours about all the things going on in my life lately, like..."
"Mmmph," Kelly was rubbing her thighs tightly together, trying her best to get herself off without her current visitor noticing. "Tali, please... come back later. I need to... to..."
"To do what, Kelly?" Tali rose to her feet, leaning forward on Kelly's desk and watching the human squirm in amusement. "What do you need to do? Tell me what's bothering you, Kelly. You know I'm here to listen."
"Oh, Tali, I'm sorry," Kelly cried out, before unzipping her pants and thrusting both hands down into her crotch. Tali could hear the wet squish of Kelly's fingers as she pushed down inside her soaked panties and desperately fingered herself. "I don't know what's come over me! I can't control myself."
Tali strolled around Kelly's desk, watching the human frantically try to get herself off. "Terrible thing, isn't it? To lose control? To not be able to make your own decisions, and be forced to have somebody else make them for you?"
Kelly seemed to barely hear Tali's words, but the effect of her hypnotic suggestion were definitely in full effect. Yanking up the front of her top, Kelly reached one of her hands up to pull roughly on one of her stiffened nipples, while the other hand continued its rapid stroking down between her thighs.
Tapping out a sequence on her omni-tool, Tali set her nerve-stim software onto a low setting. The pleasant hum started in her crotch, and she grinned as she strutted around the helplessly horny Kelly.
"God," Kelly helplessly cried out, her fingers seeming to have no effect on her rapidly increasing arousal. "Oh, God."
"God didn't do this to you," Tali said, watching Kelly gasp as Tali's voice increased the desperate tingling in her pussy to even higher levels. "I did. And the only way you're going to find release from this is if I grant it to you. So, Kelly, I want you to ask me... no, I want you to BEG me to let you cum."
"How..." Kelly moaned, barely coherent through the uncontrollable sensations Tali's hypnotism was putting her through. "How did you..."
"How doesn't matter," Tali said. "The real question is 'who.' As in 'who is your master'? Who controls you now?"
Kelly looked shocked, not used to this new Tali. "Please, Tali... please let me..."
"Who controls you now, bitch?" Tali spat out.
"Y... you do, Tali."
Tali hopped up to sit on Kelly's desk. "Am I your master?"
"Yes, yes, yes! Please, Tali, whatever you say! Just let me cum!"
"You'll do anything I ask you?"
"Anything!"
"Very well, then," Tali said. Leaning forward, she brushed one of her fingers against Kelly's cheek.
"OHMIGOD!" Kelly screamed, as the orgasm Tali's hypnotic suggestion had been holding back hit her like a freight train. She almost fell from her chair as she jerked and spasmed in mind-blowing ecstasy, going through what would have been the most intense climax of her life if the one that followed afterward didn't immediately claim that prize.
By the time she was finished, she was soaked in her own sweat and juices. Looking down at the exhausted Kelly from her seat on the edge of her desk, Tali grinned. It had been her last hypnotic suggestion to Kelly before she'd left, that once Kelly had surrendered herself to Tali's commands and felt her orgasm, that she would be completely bent to Tali's will, and become her willing slave.
"You should consider yourself lucky, Kelly," Tali said, looking down at the first of her new subjects. "I made this quick for you. I can't say the same for the rest of them. Them, I'm going to enjoy watching lose control over their free will slowly." She shrugged casually. "But in the end, you'll all end up the same. Every last human on this ship will be just like you are now: a slave to my every demand."
Kelly blearily opened her eyes, coming down from the overload of pleasure Tali's mind control had granted her. Smiling, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Tali's waist.
"Thank you, Tali," Kelly said. "Thank you for choosing me first. I'll do anything you ask me."
"I know you will, Kelly," Tali said, stroking her first slave's head and smiling behind her mask. "I know you will."
* * * "Crewman," said a voice behind her, and Mia Patel jumped at the sound. "Are you feeling alright?"
Mia turned to see Miranda Lawson staring at her curiously. "Feeling fine, ma'am," Mia responded. "Is there a problem?"
"You seem distracted," Miranda said in that cold, professional tone of hers. "When I passed you just a few seconds ago, you were just standing and staring off into space. Don't you have duties to attend to?"
"Sorry, ma'am," Mia felt herself start to blush. "I guess my mind was... it won't happen again, I promise."
Miranda cocked her head at Mia. "I understand that things are stressful right now. If you need time to see Miss Chambers..."
"No, that's not necessary," Mia shifted nervously, wanting this conversation to be over. "I just saw her a few days ago, actually. I'm fine, ma'am, really."
Looking doubtful, Miranda finally nodded. "Alright, then, crewman. But if you need some time to get your head together, just let me know. We need everyone on this ship in peak condition for this mission, both physical and mental."
"I will be, ma'am," Mia said, and Miranda finally walked away.
That appointment with Kelly, Mia recalled as she went about her duties. That was when this had all began. Strange thing was, she didn't remember most of what they had talked about. Every time she tried to focus on a particular conversation, a single question that Kelly had asked her or an answer she had given, the memory got... fuzzy.
But at some point during their conversation, the topic had turned to Tali. And without even thinking about it, Mia had confessed that she'd always had an attraction to the mysterious alien woman. But... had she? Even as she had been saying it, it sounded wrong somehow. Her duties didn't even take her close to engineering, and although she had passed Tali in the hall once or twice, they'd barely even spoken to each other.
But as she spoke, the doubts started to fade, and soon she remembered all of the desires and fantasies she had suppressed about the exotic alien woman. Suppressed so much that she hadn't even remembered she'd had them before she spoke to Kelly. The yeoman had a way of bringing things to the surface, it seemed.
"On a long space voyage, it's natural for people confined in close quarters for long periods of time to develop urges toward one another," Kelly had assured her. "You shouldn't deny these feelings, Mia. Even if you don't act on them, you shouldn't feel ashamed about affection towards someone."
"But I'm not... I've never had feelings for another woman before," Mia had protested. "Especially not an alien woman. And I've got somebody back on the Citadel I've been seeing. How could I allow myself to betray him like that, even in my mind?"
"Your mind is your own, Mia," Kelly said. "It's your own private place where you can think whatever you want, indulge whatever fantasies you'd like. It's the one place we have in life where everything is secret, and that nobody - not your boyfriend, not anyone - can get to."
What was it she had seen then, in Kelly's eyes? The hint of a laugh being suppressed, and something else. Something that frightened her just a little bit.
Regardless, confessing this attraction that she hadn't even remembered she'd had before that day, had brought those feelings right to the surface. Seeing Tali in the hallway now, she would give her a smile and a warm greeting, and felt herself melt just a little when the quarian returned the acknowledgment. More and more, she found herself thinking about Tali as she went about her daily duties, and she would make excuses to find her way down to engineering, just to get a glimpse of the remarkable suited alien. It had been Tali on her mind when Miranda had caught her daydreaming while on shift.
And then there was the incident last night. The lights were dimmed in the crew quarters, and everyone else was sound asleep. But Mia's own sleep had been interrupted by one of the most vivid dreams she'd ever experienced, of three-fingered hands slowly stripping her out of her clothing, teasing every one of her most sensitive areas as she surrendered herself to the pleasure.
"You're mine," the voice of Tali had said in her mind. "Mine to do with as I wish. You will live by my command, and die by my command, and I will reward you with pleasure like you've never experienced before."
It had sounded wonderful, and the memory of it was still vivid as Mia had woken up back in her upper bunk. Just the thought of obeying Tali's orders, doing everything she asked of her, sent a tingle racing all across her body. Underneath her covers, she unfastened her pants and slipped a hand underneath her panties, already damp with the remembrance of the dream. Closing her eyes, she summoned up the image of Tali from her dream and began fingering herself rapidly. Any thoughts of Gary back on the Citadel, of that handsome actor from those action vids she and Rolston would always watch, all of her usual fantasies were replaced with the image of a commanding and sexy quarian.
"Yes, Tali," she had whispered, trying to keep from waking anyone in the room. "I'm yours, Tali. I'm yours to command."
Gasping, she felt a rush of pleasure as her juices flowed out across her fingers and clothing. It seemed like her orgasm went on for hours, the most intense one she'd ever had, and she felt on the verge of passing out.
By the time her climax was finished, she opened her eyes and let out a shocked gasp.
There was someone standing there, watching her in the dark. He started talking, and Mia immediately recognized Rolston's voice.
"It won't be long now," he said, a smile in his tone. "You'll be one of hers soon, just like the rest of us."
Mia was too shocked by her friend's voyeurism to even speak. What was he talking about? One of hers?
"I'm not supposed to talk about it," Rolston said. "But I can't wait until you join us. It's so wonderful, Mia. So..."
The door to the crew quarters had opened then, and Rolston quickly turned away and dropped down into his own bunk below hers. It was a long time after that before Mia got to sleep again, but when she did, the dreams of Tali returned.
Remembering that incident today, Mia knew that things had gone too far. She had to deal with this, once and for all. She walked swiftly to the lift and hit the button for the engineering deck.
When she arrived in the engine room, Tali was alone, working as usual at her console. "Hello, Crewman Patel," Tali said, no trace of surprise in her voice as she turned to face Mia.
"Tali, I need to tell you something," Mia started in, the words pouring out like a flood. "I can't take this anymore. I've been thinking about you and... and dreaming about you. I don't know what's happening to me, but I do know that I... I..."
"It's okay," Tali said, as she stepped forward to place her hands on Mia's shoulders. "I have to admit that I'm a little surprised."
Mia let out an awkward laugh. "I know. We've barely even talked to each other, and all of a sudden I..."
"No, not that. I'm just surprised that it took this long. I never would have expected you to be one of the last to give in."
"One of the last...?" Mia said, struggling to compute this sentence even as she felt her mind being overwhelmed at the mere touch of this woman. This beautiful, commanding, amazing woman, who was currently slipping Mia out of her uniform and letting it fall to the floor.
"You're mine," Tali was saying, words that Mia had heard before, and thrilled at the sound of. "Mine to do with as I wish." Tali freed Mia's breasts from her bra, the feeling of her fingers groping and stroking at Mia's mounds absolutely exquisite. "You will live by my command, and die by my command, and I will reward you with pleasure like you've never experienced before."
"Yes, Tali," Mia said, as if reading from a script that she had memorized in a previous lifetime. "I'm yours, Tali. I'm yours to command."
Tali's hand slipped down to Mia's sopping mound, and Tali's newest slave praised her mistress as she came again and again.
* * * "Oh, hello, Tali," said Dr. Chakwas, as Tali strolled into the medbay. In public like this, Tali's subjects addressed her as they normally would. It was only away from the prying eyes of the yet-to-be-indoctrinated that she received the worship she deserved. "I put together that package you requested. It's over there on my desk."
"Thank you," Tali said, the depression and anger of the past few weeks now completely gone from her voice. Picking up the metal box, she opened the lid and smiled. "Yes, this should be enough."
"I'm glad to hear it," Chakwas said, the hungry look in her eyes an indication that she hoped to be rewarded for her work. And Tali had no plans to disappoint her. But for now, she had to keep up appearances.
Walking back to engineering, she greeted the humans that smiled and waved as she passed, their eyes drinking in every inch of their new mistress.
There were only five left now. The five of the worst, the ones she had come to hate the most. She was going to take her time with them, savor the feeling of watching them lose control of their free will, one by one.
And there would be one more difference. Opening the box again, she stared down at the large supply of antibiotics and immune suppressors with a hungry look. For all the others, she had stayed in her suit, and simply watched as they played with themselves for her pleasure, or begged her to touch them with her gloved hands.
But for these five, she would feel them obediently press their bodies against hers. Have their warm, rapid breaths blow across her bare skin. And allow them to service her as she truly deserved.
Pulling out the device, she stroked it lovingly. Her plan was almost complete. The only question now was which of the five to start with.