A Piece of Technology Best Left Buried

In retrospect, Tali should have known better. When Liara had invited her on a dig to what was believed to have been a lost Quarian colony, she had been warned not to take any souvenirs. Anything, no matter how apparently benign, could potentially be dangerous. Of course, Tali didn't heed the warning. Her interest in the technology, and what leniency it might buy her with the Admiralty Board, overrode her respect for her colleagues and friends. She didn't say anything, but she realized as soon as she had set foot on the dig site that whatever ruins they had discovered were not Quarian in origin. In fact she didn't recognize the architecture at all. That was precisely why she said nothing; if she didn't know, the Admiralty Board most certainly didn't, and she'd be glad to surprise them.

So she brought back a seemingly innocuous device, some kind of injector, complete with a preloaded payload. They had found it in the ruins of some kind of laboratory or medical facility, opinion was divided as to which function it had truly served in times long gone, and she was eager to study it. She quickly discovered that the payload it was made to deliver was some kind of high-end nanotech, preprogrammed to do... something. That part was less than clear. However, going from what she could decipher of the bots, she realized it could perform highly sensitive procedures at a molecular level. If she could program it correctly, it could potentially reinforce the Quarian immune system and eliminate the need for their suits. The dream of freedom... It was so tantalizing that she simply had to chase it, even if it meant ignoring the potential dangers of testing it on herself. It was the only way, she reasoned. If Tali had turned to Shepard, the Commander would turn to Liara, and upon discovering how she had acquired this device, Liara would make sure that it was quickly confiscated and taken far beyond her reach, never to be seen again. Too much was at stake, she couldn’t let that happen.

After weeks of careful preparation, she primed the new payload she had designed into the injector and began the test, documenting her experience as she went.

“Injecting,” she said for posterity, as she pushed the needle through the threshold of an open panel on her wrist and into her veins. When she was sure she had emptied the injector, she turned to look at her vitals, which were being recorded through a link between her suit and the ship’s computer. She took a deep breath as she closed the panel. “Injection is complete. Assuming all goes well, total immune system conversion should be completed in 22 minutes and… and…” She felt dizzy. “Side effects are setting in… Keelah… Elevated body temperature… Nausea… Light-headedness… All are consistent with expectations.” Beads of sweat formed on her skin inside her climate controlled suit, which began flashing alerts and warnings. She fought through it. She saw the temps, they were survivable. She would survive. She had to.

…

“Shepard,” Liara started. “We’ve got a problem.”

“Don’t we always?” Jane asked playfully, before Liara’s dour expression told her this wasn’t the time to be coy.

“The site Tali and I visited, I believed the ruins belonged to prehistoric Quarians. The designs seemed similar enough, the timeframe fit, the stars were in the right spots, but…” She paused, considering her next words carefully.

“Yeah?”

“The Reapers, we don’t know how long they were purging the galaxy, how many civilizations rose and fell before we came along, or how many were built on the bones of another.”

“It wasn’t a Quarian settlement?” Shepard asked, alarmed.

“No,” Liara replied, “but the technology was compatible with theirs, and with them I suspect.”

“With them?”

“I believe this place was a research base, and they were conducting experiments on the Quarians,” she pulled out a datapad and handed it to the Commander. “Preliminary findings suggest that a lot of what was there was medical equipment of some kind, and there’s a problem with that too. They did an inventory before Tali and I arrived. They just did another. One item is missing.”

“Where’s Tali?”

…

As it turned out, not far. EDI found her in Mordin’s old lab. When Shepard and Liara pried open the door, they found Tali sitting in a chair, her mask off, her hood down, sipping on a cup of tea.

“Shepard, Dr. T’Soni,” she nodded. “You could have knocked you know.”

“We did,” Jane replied.

“Loudly,” Liara added, as both women holstered their weapons and tried to conceal their incredulous expressions.

“Oh, I thought you two were having a spat,” Tali shrugged. “A lover’s quarrel between two of the most powerful women in the galaxy,

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Liara looked offended.

“Never mind that, Tali, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Uh… drinking tea?”

“Where’s your mask, your protection, your… emergency induction port?” Liara gave Shepard a confused look and she regretted saying anything.

“Ha!” Tali chuckled. “You mean the straw? I don’t need it anymore. I don’t need any of that anymore. I found another way.” She stood up, brushing her long dark hair back with her hands. Liara and Shepard both were thinking the same thing: she was beautiful underneath her suit. She held up the injector. “With these, the Quarian immune system can be overhauled in less than half an hour. I could probably cut that down by half now that I know it works.”

"You... You used that thing?" Shepard allowed herself to look surprised.

"It could have killed you!" Liara cried, taking it a step further then Shepard. "Tali, that device was used by some... something, to experiment on your people. That could have been some kind of contaminant or a biological agent or... I don't know!" Liara continued in her hysterics. Tali said nothing as mentioning that she had known the whole time would likely have done little to help. At the same time however, Liara wasn't sure what to say either. The results spoke for themselves. Tali didn't need her suit anymore. Admonishing her for achieving her greatest wish felt wrong.

"Okay," Shepard said, stepping in. "Liara is right, what you did was reckless. However, given the results, I think we can let this one slide. Could you repeat this little miracle of yours?"

"Oh yes," Tali nodded vigorously. "I'm not going to stop here Shepard. With this technology, we could change the galaxy. Make it a better place for everyone."

"Fine, but first I want you to report to medical. Get checked out. Make sure this isn't just a placebo effect or something. Liara, escort her down there. I think I'm going to have to make some calls." Shepard turned around and walked out, giving the door release mechanism a good thwack so it would open and shut properly again. Liara sighed, watching her go, then turned to Tali who had just placed the injector back on the table.

"I'm sorry for yelling Tali. I'm really happy for you. It's just that you ran off when I explicitly told you to..." She had to stop talking at that point when a spike penetrated her brain. It stretched across the room, a metal structure composed of millions if not billions of self-replicating machines no bigger than an atom, connected directly to Tali's finger, and by extension her redesigned body, now producing them by the hundreds of thousands. Liara fell to her knees, her eyes rolling back in her head, saliva dripping out of the corner of her open mouth. Her consciousness and higher brain functions had been instantly neutralized by the machines now attaching themselves to her every neuron. She stepped slowly forward with a blank, uncaring expression, the spike shortening as the distance closed. When Tali spoke again, she did so with a chorus of voices that were not her own.

"Connection established. Analyzing data." She was now standing over Liara, looking down at her with a mechanical dispassionate glare. "Analysis complete. Specimen is suitable. Beginning neural reconstruction."

Liara's mind began to regain some awareness. She felt the sensation of her mind being stretched, pulled across incalculable distance in multiple directions, and then she began to hear them. The chorus that had spoken through Tali's body was now singing to her disembodied mind. She understood now that what Tali had found was programmed to reconstruct organic tissue and construct cybernetics at the molecular level. While she believed she had reprogrammed them, she did not know that what she was seeing was not a program, but a dedicated function of a nodal intelligence hidden across the Perseus Veil and beyond, one which had guided the Quarians to the development of machines so it could create a cybernetic **** race. They had even begun to convert high-ranking Quarians in preparation for their conversion of the entire species, until the emergence of the Geth disrupted their plans. They had bided their time, looking for an opportunity to strike, before the archeology team arrived. Liara now realized they were part of this too, as was Tali. Her mind had been digested by the hungering intelligence when it finished converting her body into a substantially more hardy organism, one not only free of immune deficiency, but capable of withstanding excessive physical punishment and remaining functional. The contents of Tali's brain had been carefully analyzed and disseminated. A plan was now in motion. One that would see the galaxy's entire population join them.

It would be wonderful, she realized, as she felt her individual thoughts probed and excised. It felt good to have her knowledge extracted and given over to a higher power. She was, after all, simply complex information. Her mind was something they could consume and her body was something they could use. She should be honored. Indeed, one of the last things the conscious mind of Liara T'Soni ever felt was pride at being part of something so much greater than her pathetic individuality and its facile emotions like love and hope.

When the intelligence assumed control, her body stood up and began removing its clothes, revealing an athletic, lightly muscled figure. It gained tone and definition as the machines began to work, causing her shoulders to broaden and her breasts to swell. Tali's body watched impassively as the modifications it had undergone now took place on Liara's then stepped forward when they were complete. Liara stood at attention as Tali's hands moved in two directions, one towards her nipple, the other towards her clit. With the lightest of touches, Liara's path to orgasm began, building quickly and growing stronger, her nipples growing erect and her clit engorged as the stimulation increased. Tali's touch was precise, her hands guided by Liara's own intimate knowledge, which was now shared between them. She knew just what buttons to push and just how to push them for maximum effect. As she teased Liara's nipple, the asari began to lactate a silver fluid, which also ran down her thighs. Her body shook as she ejaculated, silver spraying out of her. Tali did not cease, provoking her to orgasm after orgasm until the intelligence was satisfied. The asari would serve well as living factories.

Liara's body quickly redressed and both women stood before the door. New tasks were being calculated. There was a soft click and both blinked as personality facsimiles came online. Both gave each other a slight nod and exited. Tali was going to test the limits of EDI's cybersecurity, while Liara was going to learn everything about the ship straight from the source...