The Perfect Bait

Several months passed without word, and Shepard started to worry. Like it or not, Miranda was a member of the Normandy's crew, and thus her safety was Shepard's responsibility. She had contacted the Alliance, Cerberus, and made full use of the Shadow Broker's extensive connections. No one had heard anything related to Miranda Lawson.

One night, Shepard was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Liara slept peacefully next to her, arms wrapped around her love. It did little to comfort her. She knew that, if she were missing, Liara would stop at nothing to find her. She had stopped at nothing to bring her back from the day. Shepard would do the same for her. Who would do that for Miranda? Cerberus certainly wouldn't. Jacob Taylor might have, except last Shepard heard he had left his pregnant wife for some random girl he'd happened to bump into in the street, so it seemed to Shepard that loyalty from him was unlikely. Oriana Lawson was the only other possibility, and while she had spirit she probably wasn't cut out for that kind of thing. Would anyone else try? Would anyone else care?

In the morning, Liara exited the shower to find Shepard looking intently at her terminal.

"What's wrong?" She asked, drying herself off and looking over her shoulder.

"Her last destination was Horizon, then she left to meet her contact. No passenger ships in the area reported taking her on so she'd have to be somewhere in the vicinity," Shepard stated.

"Shepard..." Liara admonished.

"I let her go, Liara," Shepard repeated, for what must've been the dozenth time. "I let her go without backup. I've got to find her."

"You're looking for a needle in a haystack. Miranda Lawson is gone. Supposing she's even still alive, she could be anywhere in the galaxy. There's nothing we can do, Shepard."

"How do you know that?" She asked.

"Because if I couldn't find her, who else could?"

Shepard opened her mouth to say something, but Liara made a convincing point. She stopped, leaned back in her chair, and Liara wrapped her arms around her, Shepard's head resting on her soft breasts.

"I thought I'd never lose another member of my team," Shepard said. "Guess I was a fool."

"It wasn't your fault, Shepard. you couldn't have known," Liara frowned, tightening her grip to comfort her love. She sighed as Shepard looked up at her with those big green eyes. "Look... If you want," Liara said slowly, "I'll ask around one more time. See if anyone seen or heard from her." Shepard perked up slightly as Liara continued. "But this is the last time. You have to promise me if we don't hear anything else that you'll let her go. We add her name to the memorial wall and then we move on. Okay?"

"Okay," Shepard nodded. "Thank you Liara."

Liara sighed, then smiled. "How could I ever say no to you?"

...

In Solheim, Oriana was at her desk. Miranda, or M1 as she now was, was under the desk.

"Mmm... That's the spot... Ah!" Oriana gasped, then grinned down at her sister, whose head was buried in her pussy. "You know M1... Miranda... sometimes in my most private moments, I wonder if it was wrong of me to do this to you, to take away your mind, your identity, your free will... but then I look down at your blank face as you eat me out... and I realize I don't give a fuck if it was right or wrong." She cackled like a witch. "Ooh... You're just the perfect ****, and I'm just the perfect mistress, and that's just how it should be."

"Yes. You are the perfect mistress. I was born to serve you," M1 said in a monotonous voice between licks. Oriana sometimes wondered what it would be like if her sister had a cock. She was tempted to find out. It was nothing a little creative genetic tampering couldn't achieve and it would open up so many possibilities...

The very fact that she could bring such things about on a whim excited her. She could do anything she wanted to the Mirandas and no one could stop her. If she wanted to, she could give them any personality, have them fulfill any role. She'd already imprinted a copy of Miranda's original personality into the original's head, which she could turn on and off like a light switch and edit on the fly with just a few words, for no other reason than her own amusement. Personally, as much as she liked watching the original despair at her fate or thank her graciously for being shown her place in life, she liked it most when she and the rest were like this. Uncomprehending, unthinking, unquestioning. They weren't people, they were property, and they were her property.

The thought of it brought her teetering over the edge. "Oh yes..." She moaned. "Oh god... Oh god yes... I... I'm cumming!" She came all over her sister's vacant face. M1 simply sat there now, juices dripping down her chin. "Heh! You know it's kind of a good look for you Miri... Cheap whore really suits you."

"Thank you mistress," Miranda monotoned. Oriana gestured for her to crawl out from under the desk, and when she did so, Oriana pulled out a white towel from a drawer in her desk, stood up, and began to wipe her face down.

"Still, there are others who can wear that look. I want you to be just as perfect as you've always been..." When she finished cleaning her off, she caressed Miranda's smooth silky cheek. Miranda did not react in the slightest. "No matter how many more of you I make, nothing will ever compare with the original." She leaned in and stole a kiss from her sister, locking lips, and teasing out the faint taste of herself. It was a moment that Oriana could have lived in forever...

Then, there was a loud beeping from her computer, and the moment passed. She sighed and walked over. What was the saying? Oh yes. No rest for the wicked. She saw a message pop up.

The bitch is still looking for her lost pup.

Oriana grimaced at the message. Her contacts words were clear. Shepard was persistent it seemed. Oriana had used her late father's money and influence to make some powerful friends and shield her pet project, but if Shepard was determined she had a funny feeling she'd show up at her front door sooner or later. She could not accept that. It was time to act. She'd planned for this moment. The necessary preparations had already been made, but she knew she was treading on dangerous ground here.

She typed out on her monitor.

Then it's time we throw her a bone.

...

"Shepard!" Liara cried, rushing into the Captain's Cabin where the Commander was seated at her desk, going over some correspondence from Admiral Hackett which Ashley had forwarded with lots of angry annotations. She was startled by her love's sudden appearance.

"Whoa! Where's the fire?" Shepard asked, concerned.

"One of my contacts just reported spotting Miranda."

"What?!" Shepard knew where the fire was now: underneath their feet and spreading.

"They said they spotted her on Horizon, two days ago. She never left the planet," Liara explained, trying to catch her breath. "Her father had a few investments on Horizon, big ones, but one of them doesn't appear on any map."

"But her father's..." Shepard started the sentence but immediately retracted the thought. What better way to lure his errant daughter in than by making it seem like he'd been removed from play? "You think they've captured her?"

"I can't say, but I can say that from what my contact described, the facility is heavily guarded. If we take the Normandy into orbit, they'll know we're coming."

"We're not taking the Normandy. I'm going down there myself," Shepard declared, marching towards the elevator.

"Shepard wait! You can't go alone. You could wind up just as trapped down there as she is."

"One person stands a better chance of infiltrating that place and coming back without detection, and I'm good at that sort of thing." She gave her love a confident smile, but her thoughts betrayed her. Miranda was good at sneaking in too. "If you don't hear from me in three days, tell Ashley she's to take Normandy home and bring back help."

"With all due respect," Liara said, realizing she couldn't convince her to step off this path. "If I don't hear from you in three days, I'll kick the doors in myself." She pressed her lips against Shepard's and the two embraced for a moment. When they were done, Liara said simply "Come back to me alive this time."

Shepard nodded. She would get back. One way or another.