As soon as Miranda stepped out onto Deck 5, she heard the loud sounds of a party in progress. Thumping bass and drunken laughter seemed to fill the entire deck.
The lights had been dimmed in the hangar bay, and somebody had arranged several of the crates of supplies into a tall barrier, to wall off a particular area and block the view of anybody observing through the windows on the engineering deck.
Miranda made her way around the crates to find about 20 or so crew-members laughing and drinking. A bar had been set up against one wall, and the chosen few who'd been invited to this affair crowded around to refill their glasses.
As Miranda approached the group, the first thing she noticed was that all of the assembled party-goers were men. It made her curious as to why she had been chosen to get an invitation. A few of them shot her suspicious looks as she entered, before averting their eyes and trying to hide their faces.
"Uh, hey, Miss Lawson," said the crew-member working the bar as she approached, a member of the security team whose name she seemed to remember was Franklin. He immediately stopped pouring a shot of whiskey for a navigation technician to Miranda's left and stared at the floor. "Okay, we're busted. Look, I'll shut this down right away. It wasn't even my idea, I just..."
Without saying a word, Miranda grabbed the bottle of whiskey from his hand and wrapped her lips around the neck. While the men whooped and cheered, she knocked back the nearly half-full bottle of liquor and didn't come up for breath until it was dry. "Fuck yeah," she cried out, and the crew cheered and patted her on the back.
She joined in with the festivities, laughing uproariously at all of the tall tales from Alliance training and past shore leaves the crew traded between each other, and downing drink after drink along with them. It was a little while until she noticed the one other new feature of the cargo deck: someone had set up a thick red curtain and a makeshift stage, long and with a metal pole planted at the end. Miranda wasn't exactly a prude, so she knew exactly what this set-up was for.
"Hey, when does the show start, anyway?" she asked one of the crew, her head swimming as she spoke. It was just occurring to her now that she wasn't in her own body at the moment. Her father's genetically-engineered genes had included a resistance to alcohol that made it almost impossible for Miranda to get drunk. But Jack didn't have such benefits, and while Miranda imagined Jack probably could knock back a few with the best of them, she wasn't as resistant to the effects of alcohol as Miranda was used to.
"Should be any time now," said Hawthorne. "Didn't know you were into that sorta thing, Miss Lawson."
"I'm... I'm not. Not really," Miranda said with a giggle. "I'm into men," she said blearily, as her hand reached down to stroke Hawthorne's thigh. This brought another cheer from the crowd.
"Oh, fuck," Hawthorne moaned, a sizeable bulge forming in his uniform pants. Snickering, Miranda shifted her hand to rub against his erection, the crewman throwing his head back and letting out a groan as she fondled him.
"Screw the show, man," said another crew member, who approached Miranda from the other side and started groping at Jack's petite breasts. "We got the good shit right here."
And just then, the music playing came to an abrupt halt, and a man's voice came over the speakers placed at either side of the stage. "Gentlemen of the Normandy, are you ready?" The response was a chorus of cheers, which Miranda joined in despite not being one of the addressed gentlemen. "Then let me introduce you to the hottest thing to come out of the Milky Way galaxy since the sunlight on Haestrom. Please give a warm Normandy welcome to Commander Jane Leopard!"
The sound of automatic weapon fire came from the speakers, and the lights were dimmed to almost darkness. The curtains parted, and a spotlight was turned on to illuminate a woman wearing an N7 Breather Helmet... and not much else. The only thing covering her otherwise naked body was a skimpy leopard-skin bikini, Miranda guessed to better fit with the silly name.
A new, bass-heavy track began to play as the show began. The stripper pantomimed brandishing an assault rifle as she made her way up the stage, playing her part to the hilt. As soon as she reached the pole, however, she dropped the act and lept to grip onto the hard metal column. The crowd let out an appreciative cheer as she twirled around, her legs spread wide and her crotch rubbing against the metal as she spun around to hit the ground.
"Damn," thought Miranda as she watched the dancer go through her routine. "The girl knows her stuff." Hawthorne and the rest of the partygoers quickly moved away from Miranda to crowd around the stage, and silly as it was, Miranda was starting to feel a little jealous.
The routine continued, the mystery dancer wrapping her legs around the pole to hang upside down. Reaching down, she gripped the strap of her top and tore it off, the men cheering as her breasts sprang free. Flipping back up onto her feet, she writhed sensuously, her eyes taking in the crowd from behind her helmet.
With the crowd focusing all their attention on the dancer, nobody was watching Miranda as she slid her hand down inside her pants, unashamedly playing with herself as she watched the dancer move.
As the men cheered and the dance continued, the tone started to change subtly. As the background music slowed in tempo, the dancer moved away from the pole and began approaching the audience, rubbing her bare tits and moving her hips from side to side as she stepped. Lowering herself to the floor, the dancer rolled onto her back and leaned out over the edge of the stage, her breasts hanging in the faces of the drooling men.
One man tentatively reached a hand out and, when the dancer made no indication of refusal, grabbed one of her breasts and began to roughly grope her. Another of the crew jumped right in to grab the other tit, and after about thirty seconds of this treatment, the dancer rolled around to place herself in front of two more of the crew members, who continued where the first two men left off.
"Oh, fuck," Miranda said as her fingers worked busily inside her damp snatch. What she wouldn't give to be in that dancer's body right now.
And in her bleary, alcohol-muddled mind, that's when the connection finally got made.
As the crowd let out another cheer, the dancer grabbed the front of her thong panties and tore them away, revealing a damp pussy and a thin landing strip of black pubic hair that Miranda had just trimmed a week ago. As Miranda sprang from her seat and charged forward, the dancer was presenting her crotch to one of the crew, who was just about to dive in tongue-first when Miranda shoved him away.
Grabbing the dancer, Miranda pulled her to the floor and whipped off the helmet. And her own face grinned back at her.
"Hey, cheerleader," said Jack. "Enjoying the show?"
* * * "Tali..." Shepard nervously scooted toward the head of her bed, as Tali crawled toward her, the expression on her face unmistakable in its desperate need. "You're making a huge mistake, Tali."
Tali shook her head, Ashley's well-muscled frame slick with perspiration as she moved closer to Shepard's reclined form. "Shepard, don't you see? This is the best thing that could have happened for both of us. We both get what we want... WHO we want."
"But you're not really Ash," Shepard said, hating to say it but needing to stop Tali from going any further with this. "It's not real."
Tali responded with a melancholic smile. "It's as real as you want it to be, Shepard. And I don't even mind if you want to call me Ash. I'll be whoever you want me to be, if it means I get to have you."
As Tali's hand reached forward, Shepard tried to grip the edge of her covers, but Tali used Ashley's strength to tear them out of her grasp. As the sheets flew away, Shepard's well-built frame was revealed, clad in her usual night clothes of an old tanktop and panties.
"Please," Shepard said, even as she could feel her breathing start to accelerate. She could no longer keep herself from staring at Ash's naked body, a sight she'd dreamed about so many nights before. God, why did she have to be so perfect? It would be so much easier to put a stop to this if every instinct in her body wasn't telling her to surrender to the lust burning inside her.
Tali was on top of her now, the weight of Ashley's muscular body pressing down on Shepard, pinning her into place. Tali's hand slowly started creeping up under the bottom of Shepard's top. Shepard tried to fight it, but she couldn't bite back the heated moan as Tali cupped her breast, her fingers teasing and pulling at her rock-hard nipple.
"I'm yours, Shepard," Tali leaned down and whispered into Shepard's ear. "My commander, my love... I'm all yours."
"Tali..." Shepard protested one last time, even as Tali slowly lifted her shirt and leaned down to take Shepard's other nipple into her mouth.
"Oh, God, yes," Shepard gasped, surrendering herself to the fantasy.
* * *
Ash stared at the 3-D rendered version of herself on Tali's helmet display, still shocked at this revelation. Tali had made a simulation of her in this sex program? The truth about Tali's feelings for Shepard had been jarring enough, but the idea of meek, bashful Tali getting herself off to fantasies of...
She frowned. Her first instinct was to find Tali and confront her about this, but how could she ever do that? She'd be admitting that she'd pried into Tali's personal files, after all. In some ways, she was just as guilty as Tali was, here.
Or maybe not. All she'd seen so far of this program of Tali's was the starting menus. Honestly, she didn't even know what these nerve-stimulation fantasies entailed. And while she doubted it was anything innocent with the general vibe of the program up to this point, she was now curious to know what exactly this simulation did.
But, she thought, there was no way she was going to run a simulation of herself. The image of it was too surreal to consider. Backing out of her entry, she reselected Commander Shepard.
"This is for Tali's own good," Ashley rationalized to herself. "I need to know what she's getting up to with this program."
The rationalization rang hollow, even to herself, but Ash wasn't backing down now. She spoke. "Confirm selection."
"Simulation loading. Please assume a standing position while Virtual Partner builds your chosen scenario."
A sex simulation that made the user stand up? Shrugging, Ashley stepped into position in the center of the cabin. After several minutes, Ashley gasped, as the entire room seemed to fade before her eyes, the bare metal walls of the Normandy replaced with wooden slats. She stared around at her new surroundings. It was the archetypal vision of a romantic cabin getaway on Earth. A fireplace crackled against a wall, a bottle of champagne chilling in ice nearby. Part of her knew that she was still back on the Normandy, and that all of this was some sort of virtual reality simulation, but all of it seemed so real.
"Ashley," said a voice from behind her, and she turned to see Commander Shepard walking toward her. God, it was like she was right there. The simulation had done a nearly flawless job of creating a false version of Ashley's former commander. The only major difference was that Shepard wasn't wearing her usual Alliance uniform or heavy body armor, instead dressed in a frilly blue blouse and mid-length skirt, an outfit Ashley couldn't imagine the real Shepard wearing in her wildest dreams.
"I bet you're wondering why I invited you here," Shepard's image said.
"No, I think it's pretty obvious why..." Ashley started to say, but Shepard ignored her. Apparently, the simulation wasn't programmed to let the user interact back with their virtual plaything.
"The truth is," the virtual Shepard said, averting her eyes. "Ashley, I've been watching you for a long time now. The past few years, being around you, I've wanted to tell you for so long how I felt, but I was afraid of how you'd react."
Shepard reached up to Ashley's face, and Ashley let out a gasp as she FELT the fingers stroking her cheek. She had to remind herself that this was all a computer program, and that the nerve stimulators in Tali's suit were simulating the feel of Shepard's hand against her face.
But it was all so real.
"I love you, Ashley," Shepard said, her hand reaching down to clasp the back of Ashley's neck. "And I'm through with waiting. So I'm asking you, flat-out... do you feel the same way?"
"Uh, can I think about it?" Ashley said with a nervous chuckle.
Shepard grinned, her eyes glistening. "You do?" she exclaimed, the program obviously expecting a different response from the user. "Ashley, you don't know how hard it's been, being around you so much and pretending I didn't feel the way I felt." Shepard moved forward to embrace her, and despite herself, Ash instinctively reached up to wrap her arms around the virtual Shepard. She could almost swear the feeling of the warm body against hers was real.
Pulling away, the image of Shepard reached down, and Ash felt the sensations of fingers unbuttoning a blouse her virtual form was wearing. "You're so beautiful, Ashley," Shepard said, and Ashley let out a deep breath as she felt Shepard's hands stroking her bare chest. "You're every bit as beautiful as I always dreamed you'd be."
Shepard's hands drifted down Ash's body, the sensation of fingers moving sensuously down her sides and over her hips. The pants her virtual self was wearing joined her blouse on the floor, and Shepard took in her body with heavy-lidded eyes and parted lips.
"I need you now," Shepard said, roughly tearing away her own clothing to stand naked before Ash. Ash let out an appreciative whistle; Tali's bio-scan was certainly thorough. Ash hadn't really considered women as a sexual option before, but Shepard's nicely-toned form, combined with the overheated state her previous forays with Tali's nerve-stimulation had left her in, was opening Ash's mind to new possibilities in a hurry.
Ash felt Shepard's fingers grip her hand, and the simulation created the illusion of motion as Ash was led to the thick bear-skin rug in front of the fireplace. The suit created the sensation of fur tickling Ash's back as Shepard laid her gently down, climbing down soon after to straddle her prone form.
"You're going to love this, Ashley," Shepard said, and as her hand drifted down between Ashley's thighs and Tali's suit did its best to replicate the sensation, Ash found it difficult to argue. * * *
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Miranda cried out at Jack, grabbing her own body by its shoulders and yelling into her own face.
Jack smirked back. "What does it look like I'm doing? Funny, it's been a few years since I had to make a living working the pole, but looks like some skills don't fade. And let's face it, princess, your body is much more suited for this sort of show than mine is."
Miranda wanted to slap her in the face. "My body! That is my body you're whoring around up there! I should drag you up to Shepard's cabin right now and have her lock you away!"
The assembled crowd of men stood around in confusion, not sure if they should leave and give the two women privacy, or stay and see if things degenerated into a cat fight. The second option won out, as they crowded around the two shouting women.
"Lock me up?" Jack said with a bitter laugh. "Shepard better find a cell big enough for two, then. I know all about what you've been up to in my body."
Miranda tried to hide her surprise. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she lied.
"Oh, really? Does a stiff British cock up your ass ring any bells? Or up MY ass, I should say. I swear, if you got the crabs fucking that guy and I gotta deal with that shit when I get my body back, I'll make you regret it."
A few of the men let out "oooh"s, and one even tried to start a "Fight! Fight!" chant before one of his buddies shushed him.
"Still gonna deny it?" Jack sneered at Miranda.
Miranda searched for an excuse, even though she had none. "It wasn't my fault!"
Jack gave a laugh at this. "What, you going to tell me the smooth, seductive Zaeed Massani used his charm to steal away your innocence?"
"It's your fucking body's fault, Jack!" Miranda snapped. "You're so damned horny all the time, I couldn't think straight!"
"That's your excuse?" Jack snapped back. "My body made you do it? Well, if that's the way this works, then... " Jack let out a overblown gasp. "Oh, no! Somebody stop me! I just can't control myself!"
And with that, Jack dropped to her knees in front of one of the assembled crewmen, unzipped and yanked down his pants, and started delivering a slow, teasing blowjob. While Miranda watched in horror, Jack stared back defiantly as she used Miranda's lips to pleasure the lucky guy. The crowd let out a cheer and, at Jack's beckoning, several of them started removing their own pants and moving into position to receive her attentions.
"Oh, dear me!" Jack said, doing a terrible attempt at faking Miranda's accent as she pulled away from her current cock. "I want to stop, really I do. But I just can't control my body! Please, can one of your big, strong men save me from my own sluttiness?"
"Dammit," Miranda thought to herself, as she watched Jack move from cock to cock, pausing only to grin wickedly at Miranda. "Well, if she's going to whore out MY body..."
Unfastening the belt on Jack's pants, Miranda let them fall to the ground. "You!" she pointed to one of the crewmen not currently vying for Jack's attention. Turning around, she leaned forward against the stage. "Get over here and fuck me."
"I..." the crewman stammered.
"Now, dammit!" Miranda barked, and the crewman hustled over as quickly as he could with his pants around his ankles. Miranda let out an overheated moan as he entered her.
"Oh, yeah, I fucking love it," she imitated Jack's voice, letting out hammy moans and shuddering as if being overwhelmed by passion. "Fill my fucking pussy up with all your hot cum. I just can't get enough of being a filthy fucking slut." She sneered over at Jack with every word.
Jack narrowed her eyes right back. "You think she's a slut?" Jack declared, as she directed one of the crewmen onto the floor and mounted him. "This body of mine just can't get enough fucking cock inside it. I'll take all of you on and still it won't be enough to satisfy my horny ass!" Jack took a crewman's shaft in each hand, stroking as she bounced on the cock impaling her from below.
Miranda would have taunted back, but an inventive crew member had mounted the stage and knelt in front of her, and she just couldn't resist wrapping Jack's lips around his rigid prick. * * *
As was their usual custom on "movie night," Feron took Liara from behind, the better for both of them to watch the video screens mounted in the bedroom.
"So," Feron said, smiling as he thrust into the wet and willing Shadow Broker. "They can control themselves, huh?"
"Feron, I love you dearly, but please, keep focused on the task at hand," Liara said, somehow still dignified despite currently being bent over and fucked like a wild animal.
On the screens in front of them, the events of the Normandy played out like a low-grade porno. Tali using Ashley's body to seduce Shepard, the commander no longer resisting her advances. Ashley writhing inside Tali's body, some sort of sex program being run on her suit's computer systems. And Miranda and Jack getting gang-banged by a large group of men, the two of them using each other’s bodies to take one cock after another.
Feron had come to a revelation from this entire experience. When he and Liara had decided that they were ready to move their relationship to a physical level, he had been surprised at the fervor and stamina the unassuming asari had displayed in the bedroom. Not that her endless depths of perversions weren't a sheer delight, but Feron couldn't help but wonder where the previously solitary woman had picked up such a... voracious appetite.
But watching the effect of the Prothean artifact on the formerly straight-laced women who'd been affected by its discharge, Feron couldn't help but wonder if that device wasn't the only one that had an effect on the user's libido. And since Liara had spent most of her early life unearthing and studying Prothean artifacts, maybe something she'd found had affected her as well.
But the humans had a saying about staring into the orifices of steeds offered freely, and Feron was perfectly willing to help Liara satisfy her hungers, whether inspired by the influence of ancient artifacts or not, as much as he was able.
His efforts were suddenly distracted by a loud chime. "Decryption complete," said a simulated female voice.
"Already?" Feron said, pausing in his efforts. "We should see what we can find, stop this insanity from progressing any further than it has."
"By the Goddess, Feron, they've lasted this long, they can wait a few minutes more," Liara snapped at him. "You leave this bed without finishing and I swear I'll have you tossed out an airlock."
Begrudgingly, Feron returned to his work. His boss, always cracking the whip.