A Slave... Or A Pet

"I don't like this. This is a really bad idea."



Garrus Vakarian turned from the CIC and stared down at the ex-Cerberus operative with an annoyed expression. "You've made that quite clear several times, Mr. Taylor. And your concerns have been duly noted in the ship's log."



Jacob rubbed at the back of his neck. "It's just... this whole thing stinks of a gigantic trap. I know how badly you want to find out what happened to them, but..."



"No... you don't," Garrus said, stepping down from the CIC platform. "I've been fighting alongside Shepard and T'Soni since you were back fetching drinks for the Illusive Man. I owe Shepard more than you could possibly imagine. So if you want to sit back and cower on the Normandy while we go in and check this out, be my guest. But I'm going."



"You think I don't care? Shepard and Miranda meant a lot to me too!" Jacob snapped back at the turian. "But what's the point of putting ourselves at risk, if all we're going to find are a bunch of lifeless corpses?"

"At least we would know!" Garrus exclaimed. "And if we found Shepard's body, maybe the Alliance could replicate the Lazarus Project. We could bring her back again!"



"In case you've forgotten, the Lazarus Project head could be dead right alongside her!" Jacob yelled, the pain in his voice barely hidden underneath his anger.



Tali watched helplessly as the two men argued. She wanted to step in, but doubted she'd be able to cool them down. Tensions had been high on the Normandy SR-2 ever since the message had arrived two days ago.



It was a grainy picture, taken on some outdated omnitool, of the interior of a dilapidated prefab building. The floor of the room was covered in rubble and discarded machinery, the building obviously abandoned for some time. And in the center of the picture were three bodies, with thick cloths draped over their still forms. The body in the front of the picture was slightly uncovered, revealing the unmistakable head fringe of an asari.



And just below the crests was a dark splotch on the asari's temple. Even at the low resolution of the picture, it was unmistakably a bullet wound.



With the picture had been a simple message: "WITH RESPECT, THE SHADOW BROKER WISHES TO RETURN THE BODIES OF YOUR COMRADES," along with the coordinates to an abandoned settlement in the Terminus Systems.



They had been hunting for Shepard and her team for more than a month now, and this message had been the closest they'd ever come to even a hint of where the Shadow Broker had taken them. Everyone knew it was a bad idea to come here, but the desperation that had set in among the crew was obvious. Even if it was just to find out that the courageous human they had come to trust with their lives... even if it turned out that she was gone, they needed to know.



All of them had taken Shepard's abduction hard, of course. But Garrus especially. When they had come back from the supply depot to find the Shadow Broker's ship gone, and Shepard and her team with it, he had demanded that they search the entire system, scan every last piece of dust to figure out where they could have gone. After almost a full day of searching, it had eventually taken Tali, Joker, and Kelly all together to eventually talk Garrus down, and convince him that they needed to give up for now. They had headed back to the Citadel to meet with the Council, Garrus pacing frantically up and down the deck the whole way.



"Enough of this!" said a commanding female voice behind Tali, breaking up the heated argument between Garrus and Jacob. Tali turned to see Ashley Williams, suited up in her full combat armor, weapons holstered and ready. "We're going down there, and I don't want to hear another damn word about it. Garrus is right. Even if all we're going to find are bodies... they deserve more than to just be left on some backwater planet to rot."



When the Normandy had returned to the Citadel, Garrus and the rest of the crew begging for assistance in finding Shepard, they had found the Council to be their usual, helpful selves. "As much of a hero as Commander Shepard once was, she and the rest of you were last seen working with Cerberus," Tevos had said. "And the Council cannot justify devoting resources to aiding members of such an organization, even if they claim to have defected."



Thankfully, Anderson hadn't been satisfied with that answer. Once the meeting with the Council was over, he had gotten in touch with Hackett, letting him know about the circumstances and asking if there was anything the Alliance could do to assist. The next day, Ashley had shown up at the Normandy's docking station, telling Garrus that the Alliance, while not officially involving themselves in the matter in any way, had assigned Ashley to a "semi-permanent, classified assignment," and that she would assist however she could to locate Shepard.



It was a dangerous situation. No official Alliance or Council backing, no one to call on if things got hairy. But they all knew the risks, and not a single one of them wavered in their determination to find Shepard and her comrades, and bring them home safe.

And so they had set out. Garrus taking unofficial command of the Normandy, and he and Ashley taking point in tracking down every Shadow Broker associate they could yank out of their holes. As days turned into weeks, things had gotten more and more desperate. Garrus and Ashley began to escalate their tactics, from intimidation and threats to what humans had come to call "enhanced interrogation techniques." It had disturbed Tali a little, to see the lengths that her friends would go to in order to locate Shepard.



"But the Reapers are still out there," Tali reasoned to herself. "And if we don't get Shepard back... well, it's worth dirtying our hands a little if it means the difference between life and death for the entire galaxy."



But in the end, none of it had worked. Even under threat of pain and death, none of the Shadow Broker's associates were able to give them anything even close to a solid lead on their boss's whereabouts. After more than a month, they were in the same place they started: staring into empty space, wondering where their Commander had gone.



So this message was all they had. They had piloted the Normandy to the coordinates provided, and arrived to find no sign of any enemies - or much of anyone else - in the area. It was, to use the old Earth colloquialism, quiet. Too quiet.



But even though Tali agreed with Jacob that the whole thing was most likely a trap, she had prepared her own weapons, and was ready to follow Ash and Garrus down to the surface of the planet. If the Shadow Broker's men were there, waiting to ambush them, perhaps they could capture one of them alive, see if he could lead them back to the Shadow Broker's ship.



"Look, just... the second you smell anything off, you get the hell back to the evac point, okay?" Jacob said to the assembled SR-1 veterans. "I'm going to have the shuttle pilot come back to the ship once he drops you off, and we'll be ready to head down there after you as soon as possible if things go south."



Ashley nodded, while fitting a visor onto her head. "I'll be sending a live feed back to the Normandy," she said, activating the head-mounted camera. "We'll be in constant contact the whole time."



"Alright. Good luck out there." Jacob said. "I'll be in the cockpit with Joker, monitoring the mission."



Ashley, Garrus, and Tali stepped into the shuttle. The tension was unbearable, all of them painfully aware of the sad truth: either they were about to step into an ambush, or they were about to find the dead bodies of some of their closest friends.



* * *



"Jeff, are you feeling alright?"



Joker could have fired off any number of sarcastic comebacks to that one, but he hadn't felt much like jokes over the past month. "I'll make it, EDI. It's just... I had to go through this once already. Shepard dying because of me, that is. Twice might be a little much for me to handle."



"Commander Shepard's abduction was not your fault, Jeff. You had no way of knowing she was giving orders under duress."



"But that's it, EDI: I should have known," Joker said, his voice melancholy. "She's been my commanding officer for years now. I should have known just from her voice that she was in trouble. I never would have left if..."



"Joker," said Jacob as he entered the cockpit. "I need you to stay focused, here. The shuttle is landing at the coordinates as we speak."



"Right, got it," Joker said, pressing buttons on his control panel and bringing up a hovering display of the live feed from Ashley's visor-cam.



"You gonna be okay?" Jacob asked the pilot. "Things might heat up before we even know it."



Joker nodded. "I'm fine. Just... what are we gonna do, Jacob? If the Commander really is dead... the Reapers are still coming. Could be here before we know it. And the best hope for the galaxy might be under a sheet down there."



"We'll do the best we can," Jacob said, although there wasn't much optimism in his voice. "Hopefully it'll be enough."



* * *



"Taking point," Ashley said, as she led Garrus and Tali into the abandoned colony. It was getting close to dusk as they landed; the only sound was the whistling of the wind through the empty buildings and deserted streets, and their boots crunching in the gravel.

"Bringing up the rear," Garrus said, sweeping his assault rifle around the area. "No sign of hostiles."



They moved forward cautiously into the deserted collection of prefab buildings. Even though Ashley was sure that all of them were fighting the desire to dash directly toward the building indicated in the Shadow Broker's message.



She knew she was, at least; she still remembered her encounter with Shepard on Horizon, the cold way Ashley had cut ties with her. She had never felt right about it, even though she told herself that she was justified in her anger at Shepard. But when she had found out about Shepard's abduction from Admiral Hackett, it had made that pang of guilt even harder to bear.



The thought of Horizon being the last time she got to see Shepard had eaten away at her for the past month. As they got closer to the indicated coordinates, she almost prayed there was an ambush waiting for them. At least then, there was hope that Shepard was still alive.



"This is it," she announced, as they reached the door to a small, one-story building. "Everybody ready?"



* * *



Jacob and Joker watched from the cockpit, as Ashley's camera feed showed Tali using her omnitool to send a power surge through the door's electronics, triggering it to open. The three of them entered, Ashley moving straight ahead, while Tali and Garrus covered the sides.



"No sign of movement," they heard Ashley say, as she swept the light from her assault rifle across the room, the dim glow of the setting sun outside the only other illumination. Jacob heard Joker hiss in a nervous breath as Ash's flashlight caught a familiar sight. The three bodies from the message, hidden under the cloths just as they had been pictured.



"Careful," Jacob said, EDI broadcasting his words down to the team on the surface. "No guarantee those are actually even bodies. Could be traps."



"Roger," Ashley said. "Moving forward."



* * *



Ashley stepped cautiously over to the first cloth-covered heap. She dreaded what was to come, but they needed to do this. Needed to see if their friends had been murdered.



While still holding her assault rifle with one hand, Ash used the other to grab the cloth, and slowly draw it away. When she saw what was underneath, she let out her breath.



"It's a man. It's not one of them."



* * *



"Get out of there, Williams," Jacob demanded over the comm line. "It's not Shepard's team. We've been duped."



"Hold on," Ashley said, drawing the cloth further away from the body. Whoever it was, the man was completely unrecognizable. Somebody had fired multiple shots into his head, leaving a bloody mess where his face had been. Pulling the cloth down to the corpse's waist, Ashley spotted a gleam of light. "There's something in his hand. Looks like... it's an ID tag."



"An ID tag, or some sort of trigger for a trap," Jacob cautioned her. But Ashley was apparently determined to check it out, prying open the corpse's fingers to retrieve the gleaming object.



"Name says... Hawkins. William Hawkins," Ashley read from the metal tag. "Don't know who..."



Joker heard a gasp from behind him, and turned in his pilot's chair to see Jacob lean in close to stare at the video feed. "Williams, show me his arm. The right arm, put a light on it," Jacob said



Ashley did as ordered, showing a large, distinctive tattoo snaking around his bicep. It was just as Jacob had feared.



"I know that man," Jacob said softly, then repeated it louder for the team to hear. "I know him. Or knew him. He was a deep-cover Cerberus operative. We had him working on infiltrating the Shadow Broker's network of mercenaries. Hawkins was the cover ID we set him up with."



"Guess that didn't work out for him," Joker said, trying not to relax too much, but feeling a bit relieved that it wasn't one of his friends under that cloth.



"I knew this was all a set-up," Jacob said again. "Williams, you need to go."



The camera view tilted back and forth, Ashley shaking her head. "I want to check out the other two."



"Dammit, Williams!" Jacob said, powerless to stop her as she reached for the second cloth. "You're putting your life and the lives of your team on the line, here!"

"This is our only chance to find some sort of clue of where Shepard is, Taylor," Ashley snapped. "I'm not going to leave until we've checked everything out."



When Ashley pulled away the second cloth, Jacob cursed. It was worse than he realized.



* * *



"I know him, too," Jacob said over Ash's radio, as she stared down at the male drell corpse. "His name is Feron. He used to work for the Shadow Broker, but the Illusive Man turned him. It was because of him and Liara that we were able to recover Shepard's body."



"Looks like the Shadow Broker's cleaning house," Ash remarked. "We should take these bodies back to the Normandy. Maybe we can find something useful that will lead us back to the Broker."



Jacob didn't answer at first, but Ash finally heard his voice over her comms. "Fine, I'll get a team ready to join you down there and assist with the bodies. Withdraw to the evac point and wait for our arrival."



"Wait a minute," Ash said, stepping over to the last corpse, the asari with her head slightly poking out from under her makeshift burial shroud. "Let's check the last body first, see if you recognize her."



Taking hold of the cloth, Ashley pulled it down, revealing the dead asari underneath. Even in the dim light, Ashley knew one thing without even shining her flashlight on the body's face: it wasn't Liara.



Illuminating the woman's head, Ashley frowned. "Well, at least she went out happy," she observed, the light on her rifle shining off the dead asari's smiling face. "You know who she is, Jacob?"



"I'll field that one, actually," said a voice from the darkness. "Her name was Delaana, and she was a total bitch."



Ashley and the team all swung their lights toward the direction of the voice. Standing at the far side of the room, his hands empty and extended, was a human male. He wore the armor of a mercenary, along with an absolutely ridiculous looking green mohawk.



"Identify yourself!" Ashley yelled out. "Don't take one step or we open fire, understand?"



The stranger grinned. "I come in peace. See?" He waved his empty hands around. "No need for guns. In fact, why don't you all just go ahead and drop those weapons you've got there, hmm? Would make it a lot easier for us to have a friendly conversation."



Ash scoffed. "Yeah, don't think that's gonna happen. Put your hands behind her head and get down on your knees."



"Honey, I'm not here to start a fight," the stranger said, showing no fear in the face of three armed and experienced soldiers. "You came here looking for Commander Shepard, right? Just drop your guns, and I'll take you to her."



Ashley kept her weapon trained on the stranger, not liking the way he was leering at her. "How about we keep our guns, and you take us to Commander Shepard before we let you join your dead friends on the floor?"



"Not the way it works, I'm afraid," the stranger said, letting out a heavy sigh and staring up at the ceiling. "Women, why are they always so much trouble?" When he looked back down at them, the stranger's previously friendly voice became tinged with menace. "Let me put it another way: put down your weapons, right now, or your friends are going to suffer the consequences."



"You want me to put a round in his kneecap, Williams? Might make him a little more cooperative," Garrus asked, his weapon's light pivoting down to the stranger's legs.



Ash shook her head. "Not just yet," she said to Garrus, before turning back to the strangely calm human. "And what exactly are you going to do to my friends, considering we've got our guns trained right between your eyes, and you're completely unarmed?"



He smirked at that. "Oh, I'm sorry. I suppose I didn't make myself clear. See, I didn't mean your friends down here." He jerked a thumb upward. "I mean your friends up there."



* * *



"I've had enough of this," Jacob said, turning away from the screen. "Samara, Thane, make your way to the shuttle bay. We're going down there to..."



Jacob's next words were cut off by the sudden drone of an emergency siren going off throughout the Normandy. Red alarm lights began flashing across the main deck, and the crewmen on the CIC deck began looking around in confusion.



"EDI, what the hell is going on?" Jacob yelled over the sound of the alarms.

"Alert!" EDI's virtual form flared to life next to Joker. "A signal from outside the ship has tapped into the Normandy's computer banks! They have gained complete control of our systems and are preventing me from terminating their connection!"



"That's not possible!" Joker exclaimed. "How could they have hacked you, EDI?"



"They didn't hack me, Jeff. Whoever it is, they have all of the Normandy's access codes. I am unable to block them out."



As Jacob and Joker looked around in shock, a green gas began streaming out of a nearby vent. "EDI, what..." Jacob started coughing, placing his hand over his mouth to try and block out the gas.



"I'm afraid they have activated the Normandy's counter-insurgency protocols," EDI said, her synthetic voice sounding almost sorrowful. "A fast-acting anesthetic gas is currently being deployed across all decks."



Joker reached over to a side cabinet, trying to find the emergency rebreather through the haze of green smoke that was filling the cockpit. Behind him, he could hear crew members falling unconscious to the floor. Jacob gripped the back of Joker's chair, trying desperately to stay standing, before finally tumbling down to the deck.



"EDI, get..." Joker said between coughs. "Get the Normandy... out of..."



"I am sorry, Jeff," EDI said, as Joker slumped down into his chair, the rebreather falling from his limp fingers to the floor. "There is nothing I can do."



* * *



In her comm unit, Ashley heard it all happen. She spat out a curse as Joker's last words before falling unconscious were broadcasted directly into her ear. A few seconds more, and the signal went quiet.



"Now, that thing I was saying about dropping your weapons?" the stranger cockily said. "Or would you rather I have my men trigger the Normandy's self-destruct sequence, blow all of your friends out of the sky and leave you stranded here?"



"Maybe I should just shoot you instead!" Ash exclaimed, aiming her rifle between the stranger's eyes. "Can't give the order when your brains are all over the damn walls, you bastard!"



The stranger clucked his tongue as he shook his head. "You think I came here alone? My men are tapped into the Normandy's systems at this moment. They're expecting me to report in two minutes, and if I don't, they blow up the ship. But go ahead and shoot me if that's the way you want to play it. I'm sure you three can stick out your thumbs and hitch a ride with the next passing spaceship."



Ash gritted her teeth, before letting out a frustrated groan and dropping her rifle to the ground. "Dammit!" she snarled. "Do what he says."



"Ash, he's just gonna blow it up anyway," Garrus exhorted her.



"Garrus," Ashley turned to glare at him. "Drop your weapon."



Garrus was still hesitant, but then Tali discarded her shotgun. Walking over to Garrus, she laid a hand on his shoulder. "Please, Garrus," she said to him. "We have to do what he says."



"Yes, you have to do what I say," the stranger repeated mockingly. "You do want me to take you to Shepard, don't you?" Leaning back slightly, he crossed his arms and studied Garrus. "She's talked so much about you... Garrus, I assume is the name? She misses you terribly, you know. I'd hate to have to disappoint her, tell her that I left you to starve to death on some backwater planet. So just drop the weapon, and you'll get to see your precious Commander Shepard again. I promise."



Staring down at the ground, Garrus angrily tossed aside his rifle. His shoulders slumped in defeat, as he glared at the confident stranger with murder in his eyes.



"Good, thanks for being so cooperative," said the stranger. He pressed a hand to his ear. "It's clear. Take them down."



"What?" Ash cried out. She heard a whistling sound behind her, followed by a sharp pain in her neck. Reaching up to the source of the pain, she felt the tuft of a tranquilizer dart in her neck.



She turned just in time to see Garrus and Tali being struck by similar darts, before she felt herself falling to the ground, her vision swimming with black.

 

* * *



For the next few hours, Ashley drifted in and out of consciousness. She vaguely remembered being lifted up onto a hovering gurney. Men in battle armor pulling her along toward the ramp leading into a large shuttle. "This must be what those colonists the Collectors abducted felt like," she thought blearily, before drifting back into a deep sleep.



The next thing she remembered was falling. She blearily opened her eyes to find herself in a small room. It took her a second to recognize it as an giant elevator car. Several armed men stood around her as they all plunged rapidly downward. Toward where, Ashley could only guess. But she had little doubt that it was going to be unpleasant.



They still had hope, Ashley reasoned to herself as she drifted back into unconsciousness. Chances are, they were taking her to where Shepard and Liara were being held captive. Shepard may not have been able to escape from the Shadow Broker on her own, but with all of them working together, there had to be a way out of this.



There just had to be.



Finally, she woke again. Although she briefly wondered if she was still in some sort of dream when she saw her current surroundings.



It looked like the lobby of some posh hotel. Red carpeting covered the entire floor, several marble statues lined the walls, and a decorative waterfall ran nearby. Pleasant classical music was being piped in through a sound system high up on the ceiling, where crystal chandeliers glittered brightly. Gaining her bearings, Ash realized she had been deposited onto a red velvet couch. Her armor had been stripped off her, leaving her in just her Alliance uniform, and all of her weapons had been removed. But otherwise, she appeared to be unharmed, and not restrained in any way.



"Good, you're awake," said a voice out of her vision. When Ashley turned, what she saw astonished her almost as much as the posh setting.



She was a beautiful blonde, a radiant smile on her face as she approached Ashley on dark stiletto heels. She seemed like the type who would blend right in with surroundings like these, except for one major problem: the woman was wearing something out of one of the sleaziest bars in Omega. A black and red leather corset cinched in her waist, but left her overinflated breast implants bare and bouncing in the breeze as she walked. A matching leather collar around her neck, long black stockings attached to her corset with garter belts, and a pair of black silk panties were the only other articles of clothing on the woman's curvy form. Two male guards followed closely behind her, but she seemed to show no modesty in their presence, as she walked up to Ashley and offered her a hand.



"Where the hell am I?" Ashley said, as she ignored the woman's hand and rose shakily to her feet on her own.



The woman beamed as she gestured around at their surroundings. "Welcome to the Ark Facility! We're so pleased to have you join us, Ashley!"



When she heard the accent, something clicked inside Ash's head. She blinked away the remnants of her tranquilized state and stared at the woman. "Miranda Lawson?" she asked incredulously. The face certainly looked the same as the one in the dossier the Alliance had on the former Cerberus operative. The accent matched up, for certain. But the hair and definitely the outfit didn't seem to jibe with her profile in the slightest.



But the woman nodded eagerly at the sound of the name. "Yes, that's me! Jacob must have told you about me, I suppose. He's such a sweet guy. And the cock on that man..." Miranda rolled her eyes to the ceiling and moaned. "Oh, my God, I can't wait to have it inside me again!"



The mention of Jacob spurred something in Ash's still bleary mind. "Where's my team? What happened to the Normandy?" she took a menacing step forward, and the guards behind Miranda readied their rifles.



"Oh, don't worry," Miranda said, giving Ashley a light pat on the cheek. "They'll all be coming here soon enough. But you get to be the first one to take the tour. Oh, I'm so excited to show you the facility! Follow me, please."

Miranda turned around to head towards one of the doorways, Ash getting a good view of her black lace thong disappearing into the crack of her otherwise bare ass as she strutted her way across the carpet. After some menacing looks from the two guards, Ashley reluctantly followed the barely-dressed woman through one of the doors, still feeling a little woozy from the drugs they'd knocked her out with.



"The Ark Facility is an absolute marvel of modern technology," Miranda said, as they stepped into a long hallway. In contrast to the posh atmosphere of the main "lobby," the passageway was stark, with bare white metal walls and simple sliding doors. Built for function and not for style, obviously.



"The Shadow Broker has been working on developing this safe haven for several years now. But it was only within the past month that he finally achieved completion of this state-of-the-art facility." Miranda sounded like a bubbly corporate executive, and Ash could have almost pictured her in that role if not for the sight of her naked breasts bobbing back and forth as she walked.



Stopping for a moment, Miranda turned to Ashley and cocked her hip. "You see, when the Shadow Broker first came into contact with the race known as the Collectors, he began to suspect that the legends regarding the Reapers were not legends after all. But were indeed a very real threat that could lead to the destruction of all advanced life in the galaxy. So he began working on constructing a facility, for himself and those who joined him to stay safe and unharmed while the Reapers conducted their harvesting. And so the Ark Facility was born.



Miranda gestured up at the ceiling as she continued her spiel. "This facility is buried fifteen miles underground, and is only accessible through one highly secure, and well-hidden, elevator shaft. Even if the Reapers were to know this facility was here, they would have to reduce this entire planet to dust in order to destroy it."



"So the Shadow Broker is going to cower down here like a rat?" Ashley questioned Miranda. "Did he ever once consider using those resources to help fight the Reapers, instead of just worrying about his own sorry hide?"



Miranda let out a giggle. "Oh, don't worry about that. The Shadow Broker is still looking into ways of defeating the Reapers. In fact, I've been told that one of his teams found something recently in the Martian Archives that might prove quite useful. Just consider this facility his 'back-up plan,' if you will. A chance for him and several chosen individuals to ensure their survival should the war with the Reapers not go smoothly."



"And let me guess how somebody gets 'chosen' for a spot in the Shadow Broker's little fallout shelter. I'll start at a billon credits and start working up, tell me when I get close," Ashley scornfully muttered.



This elicited a nod from Miranda. "It is true, the Shadow Broker is asking for quite a substantial fee for someone to be considered as one of the Ark Facility's privileged residents. But half of all fees for entry into the facility are being diverted into researching potential ways to combat the Reapers."



"And what if they fail?" Ashley asked. "The poor get slaughtered by the trillions, while the rich get to live out Armageddon down here?" Shaking her head, she laughed in disgust. "Just great. This 'Ark' of the Broker's is going to leave the galaxy repopulated by a bunch of rich idiots who probably couldn't tie their own shoelaces without a butler to do it for them."



Miranda beamed, and beckoned Ashley to follow her. "That's where you're wrong, though, Ashley. The Shadow Broker isn't just allowing wealthy donors into his facility. He is also opening up the offer to carefully selected individuals of lesser financial means." She let out a light chuckle and leaned in conspiratorially to Ash. "Of course, the Shadow Broker might have forgotten to mention to them what role they'll be playing as members of the Ark Facility."



"Really?" Ash said, already getting sick of being in this place. "And what role is that, if you don't mind me asking?"



"Why, as sex slaves, of course!" Miranda said excitedly. "Just like me, and just like you and your friends from the Normandy are going to become! Isn't it wonderful?"

Ashley stopped dead in her tracks. "Hold on just a damn second!" she exclaimed. "I don't know what the hell the Shadow Broker did to you to turn you into an airheaded tramp, but if he thinks he's going to do that to me, he is seriously mistaken. I'll be damned before I'll bow and scrape to a worthless piece of shit and his perverted billionaire friends!"



"Oh, Ashley, don't be so mean," Miranda said, putting a pouty expression on her face. "I was like you when the Shadow Broker first got his hands on me. But I think once you've been here a while, you'll start seeing things in a different light."



"Bullshit. Screw your little tour, and screw the Shadow Broker. He can try if he wants, but there's no damn way he's going to make me into a giggling sex toy like you."



Miranda regarded the furious Ashley with amusement. "Why don't you come with me just a little further, Ashley? I've got something to show you that I think might change your mind just a little."



"Whatever," Ashley muttered. Staring over her shoulder at the armed guards, she added. "Like I got a damn choice, anyway." Mentally, she resolved herself to keep cool. If Miranda was alive, Shepard and Liara probably were as well. And if Ashley could get in the same room as them, maybe they could figure out a way to overpower the guards and fight their way out.



As much as it aggravated her, she had to play along for now, and wait until they took her to Shepard. If nothing else, she needed some more time to let her body completely purge the tranquilizing drug they had used on her.



Besides, even if she'd had all her faculties, Ashley would have to get seriously lucky to subdue the two guards currently at her back without a weapon to use. And who knows how many more guards the Shadow Broker had patrolling this place? There was no way she would survive on her own. She needed somebody to watch her back. She needed to find Shepard.



As they resumed their walk and turned the corner, Ashley spotted the mohawked man from the surface of the planet. "Hey, Bowers!" Miranda exclaimed as she saw him, rushing excitedly to his side. "Did everything go alright with the Normandy?"



"Absolutely perfect, babe," Bowers said, reaching down to give Miranda's ass a firm slap and eliciting a giggle from her. "Those Normandy access codes you gave us worked just like a dream. Fuckers never knew what hit 'em."



"I'm glad I could help," Miranda brightly said, pressing her barely-clothed body against Bowers, as she stared at him adoringly. "So, is everybody here?"



"Most of them," Bowers said, staring boldly down at Miranda's exposed tits as he talked. "We left a few of them behind. The old fogies and the cripple. Imagine they'll have a lot of fun explaining to the Council how the rest of their crew just up and vanished."



He laughed, and Miranda laughed along with him. "I can't wait to have them all join us!" Miranda cooed, before batting her eyes at the mercenary. "You gonna... thank me for those codes later?"



"Oh, you bet," Bowers said, grabbing onto one of Miranda's breasts and kneading it with his rough fingers. Miranda moaned, and Ashley tried not to retch in disgust as she realized that Miranda was grinding her crotch against Bowers's leg. "Me and all the guys, we're all gonna give you a big thank-you present."



"Great, I can't wait!" Miranda said, reluctantly stepping away from Bowers and waving goodbye to him as he went down the hallway in the opposite direction. Once he was gone, Miranda turned to Ash with a smile. "That's Bowers. He's such a sweetie! You'll be getting to know him soon enough." Leaning towards Ash, she whispered. "Little tip between us girls: he likes you to suck on one of his balls while you jerk him off. I did that one on him a few days ago... he came allllll over me!" Miranda beamed with pride at her achievement in pleasing one of her masters.



Ash grimaced, but said nothing. Inside though, she made a silent promise: first man in this place that expected her to suck on something, she was going to bite it off for them. They could punish her however they want; she wasn't going to let these bastards turn her into one of their playthings.

"Gotta find Shepard," she thought to herself as they continued their tour of the facility. As Miranda was babbling on about their food stores and animal cloning labs, and how they could sustain the estimated population down here for over 850 years, Ash was picturing herself and her old commander taking down these two guards like they were practice dummies, and shoving their rifles into this bimbo's face until she had no choice but to tell them how to get out of here. Shepard and Williams together again, just like old times.



"And here's the last stop on the tour," Miranda finally said, facing a small, unassuming door at the end of a narrow hallway. "Right through here is slave processing, where you'll be prepared for your new life as a servant of the Shadow Broker. It might be a bit painful at first, but once it's all over..." Miranda let out a giddy squeak, bouncing on the balls of her feet and letting her enhanced breasts jiggle as she clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh, you're gonna have so much fun!"



Ashley kept her gaze steady on Miranda, trying to keep her intentions of escape off her face. "So, the rest of them are through there? Shepard and Liara, they're still alive?"



Miranda tittered, and the sound of it made Ashley want to punch her in the jaw. "You'll see. Just walk through that door, and you'll get the answers to all your questions."



Ashley glared back at the armed guards. She didn't like the sound of "slave processing," but she could still feel a trace of the fatigue from whatever they had doped her with on the way here. Chances are, even if she was lucky enough to disarm one of them in her current state, the other guard would have already taken aim and shot her down.



"Shepard, I don't know how they managed to keep you under lock and key for more than a month, but I hope they haven't taken the fight completely out of you," Ashley thought to herself. "Because we're getting the hell out of this perverse fantasy land of the Shadow Broker's... or we're gonna die trying."



The door to "slave processing" opened, and Ashley saw a small, darkened room on the other side. She tentatively took a step forward, but then glanced over her shoulder. "You're not coming?" she asked Miranda.



"No, I've got other matters to attend to," Miranda explained, as she bounced her way over to spin around and stand between the two armed guards. While Ashley watched in disgust, Miranda reached behind her and shoved a hand down both the fronts of both of the guards' pants. "These boys have done such a great job, and it's been way too long since I've have a nice, hard cock in my mouth." Her eyes didn't leave Ashley's as she freed the guards' manhoods from their pants, and lovingly stroked them to full erection. "Oh, don't be jealous! You'll get your chance soon enough," Miranda gently reassured her, as she lowered herself down into a crouch and leaned over to begin hungrily lapping at the head of the prick on her right.



"G... get moving," one of the guards said, raising his rifle menacingly – or as menacingly as he could manage while his cock was out of his pants and being played like a harmonica by a blond bimbo. Ashley reassessed her chances, wondering if she could take these guys down while they were... otherwise engaged. But they were about ten feet away from her, and even with the distraction of a handjob, Ash was sure that at least one of them would be able to get off a shot before she closed the distance.



Taking a deep breath, Ashley turned back to the door into slave processing. "Here goes nothing," she thought, before walking boldly through the door and into the small room.