The Perfect Partner

When Shepard and Miranda returned to the Normandy, they were met by an unusual sight: a crowd. The crew had turned out in the hanger to meet the returning team. As Miranda apologized for making everyone worry, both Jack and Ashley both gave a dismissive grunt. Shepard explained the situation at Solheim, avoiding specifics wherever possible so as to give Miranda her privacy. No one needed to know what really went down there, only that the situation was now resolved, and Miranda was back with them.

"Now if you'll excuse us, Miranda and I have to go over some things before she resumes her duties onboard the ship," Shepard said, leading Miranda to the elevator. They rode it together in silence until they reached the Captain's Cabin, at which point they marched out to be greeted by Liara, who was sitting at Shepard's desk. She was reclining crosslegged, and more importantly, she was naked.

"I see you both made it back it in one piece," Liara said, gently swiveling in her chair. "I take it everything was successful?"

"Yes," they both said at the same time.

"Good," she nodded, then gestured with her hand. "Strip. Both of you. Slowly." Obediently, Shepard and Miranda began to disrobe, pulling their armor and clothes off in as sensual a fashion as they could manage. Liara watched with a mischievous grin. Every curve of the new Shepard's body was just as the original's had been. The Shadow Broker had lied when she told Shepard she couldn't find Miranda after they realized she was missing. Liara found her and Oriana in a matter of days, but rather than expose the operation, she bought in. Oriana could keep Miranda, that bitch was better off as a brainless piece of fuckmeat than she'd ever been as a person, but Liara could see that her ambitions went further than simply fucking her sister and that intrigued her, as did the technologies her father's company had been working on. Liara agreed to help her with all the logistics of her plans in exchange for a modest slice of the pie, so to speak, something Oriana agreed to without hesitation.

What changed the game was Shepard's insufferable feeling of responsibility for her crew. She loved Shepard more than life itself, but she had a righteous streak that Liara had grown to loathe in the years since the Commander's first ****. If Shepard had kept looking for Miranda, she'd have stumbled onto the truth eventually no matter how hard Liara had tried to hide it, and their love would be forever destroyed. Liara could never allow that. So instead, when it became clear a peaceable solution was out of the question, she went with Plan B. Oriana had already acquired an intact clone of Shepard from Cerberus, apparently some backup in case Shepard's resurrection proved temporary. Oriana had modified its body to fit Liara's specifications. She was identical in every way to her progenitor, plus a few extra features which Liara had requested to keep things interesting. All she had needed was a mind to go in her preprogrammed brain, something which could only come from the original, and so Liara led her right into the trap.

When they had captured her, they used the same technology that had been used to extract and copy Miranda's mind. The two identical women were placed in special chairs with metal caps attached to their heads and when Oriana threw the switch, the transfer began. Over the next few minutes, every thought she'd ever had was pulled from her head and placed into the clone, and by the end of it the original Shepard was no more. Just a mindless automaton with the designation S1, awaiting programming and direction. Liara wished she could have been there to see the original Shepard's final moments as an independent woman. To watch her descend into mindless subservience as everything she had been was shunted into her replacement... She moistened at the thought.

Part of Liara was going to miss the original Shepard. That part of her would always know that the woman before her wasn't real, just a convincing facsimile grown from a carefully arranged collection of proteins, lipids, acids, and polysaccharides that had once belonged to the original. This was not a person, just the product of her own inability to accept an independently minded partner interfering in her illicit business.

Then she saw the obedience in the eyes of the clone, the new Shepard's unyielding programmed devotion to her, and the same devotion reflected in the eyes of her companion, and all of that rationality and regret was swept away in an instant.

"Kneel," LIara said to the two now naked women before her, and both did so instantly. She could only smile with delight. In public Shepard would still be the hero of the galaxy and she'd still perform her duties as expected. In private, however, she'd be just like this. Docile, obedient, unquestioning. She uncrossed her legs and extended one out. "Crawl over here and kiss my foot. Caress it. Worship it."

On all fours, the new Shepard and Miranda gently crawled over. When they were close enough, they both took turns planting tender, reverent kisses on Liara's foot. Soon enough, they progressed furhter. Miranda licked at her ankle and ran her tongue up her leg, while Shepard took her toes in her mouth one at a time and gently sucked. Liara cackled to herself. The real Shepard and the real Miranda would never have done something so humiliating for anyone, not even their lovers. Too bad for them.

"That's enough of that," Liara said, standing up. "Follow me to the bed, girls. Time for the first night of the rest of your lives."

...

Oriana stood, staring at a cloning room and all the tubes inside. She had agreed when she first acquired the Shepard clone that she would not manufacture any additional copies of the Commander. Liara did not want an army of identical Shepards running around. Of course, Liara had never said anything about Shepards who weren't identical...

She started with the different hair colors again. It was an easy enough change. Shepard would come in flavors of brunette, black, and blonde. However, why should she stop there? She continued making adjustments. She made some who were a little more masculine, a little more tomboyish, and others a little more feminine while still maintaining that stoic beauty that Shepard was known for. She shortened and lengthened hair, made it thick, made it fine, toyed with her features like her eyes, nose, and brow. Then she started getting a little crazier. She didn't want to mess too much with her sister's perfect body, which is why Shepard's little jab had cut deep the other day, but Shepard's form was entirely up for grabs. She changed her skin tone, her eye color, even her ethnicity. She had some Shepards who were African, some who were Asian, some who were Hispanic, and all of these were completely unrecognizable from their point of origin. Yet place their DNA under a microscope and they'd find them all to be Shepard, just with the sliders toyed with. Still, she'd always treasure the original. She didn't know what she would do with the Shepard clones just yet, for now they'd simply be integrated into the facility just like the Mirandas, but she had no doubt opportunities would present themselves with time.

She looked to her two prime slaves, once proud independent women, now mindless playthings that she could do with as she pleased, and only one word sprung to mind.

"Perfect," she smiled, and she led them back towards the bedroom.