Tali'Zorah vas Normandy returned to the engineering section of the Normandy somewhat reluctantly. The shore leave Admiral Hackett had assigned the Normandy's crew was enjoyable, and Tali had forgotten how nice it could be to just relax and unwind. She was not entirely ready to get back to work. She was well aware of the threats still facing the galaxy, but she was starting to feel tired. Tired, and maybe a little afraid of what was to come.
She tried to put all of that aside and not worry too much. Instead, she stopped to enjoy the quiet hum of the Normandy SR2's drive core. It was quieter than she was used to in Quarian ships, but right now, she was thankful for that. She still had a hangover from Shepard's party the previous night, and loud noises were high on her list of things to avoid that day. The hum gave her a sense of security and tranquility. She closed her eyes and smiled, letting out a deep breath.
"Kenneth!" a loud shout broke Tali's calm state of mind.
Tali opened her eyes and groaned under her breath. The shout came from Engineer Gabriella Daniels, or Gabby for short.
"What is it?" Kenneth Donnelly asked defensively.
"You were supposed to rebalance the Gilbourne coefficients before you adjusted the anterior intakes."
"It'll be fine," he replied dismissively, "the anterior intakes were adjusted soon enough after the coefficients that it shoul'n't make a difference."
"But if it does it could throw off the gravimetric profiles," Gabby insisted.
Tali sighed, a little more audibly this time. Gabby and Ken were always bickering. It never got serious, and neither of them ever seemed to get too angry at each other-most people on the Normandy had already figured out they were harboring feelings for one another, but neither of them seemed to have realized it themselves yet-but Tali had quickly grown tired of their constant arguing. It seemed their conversations always lead them to a path where some dispute could be had.
"You're just paranoid," Ken said, waving one hand dismissively while continuing to input commands into the console in front of him with his other hand, "I made sure ta double-check the gravimetric profiles, and everything's balanced."
"Fine," Gabby relented begrudgingly, "as long as you're not shirking your duties to go howling at Diana Allers again."
"Everything's definitely balanced on her."
"You're such a dog," Gabby replied passively, not looking up from her own console.
Tali had heard exchanges like these too many times for her to count. Kenneth would frequently make sexual remarks about the women onboard, Gabby would get jealous and make a passive-aggressive remark about it in return. However, Kenneth would rarely make any comments on Gabby, a fact that Gabby seemed to assume meant Kenneth was not interested in her. Tali, however, could see that the other women Kennet commented on did not really mean anything to him, and it was the fact that Kenneth had feelings for Gabby that he did not want to disrespect her with crude remarks about her body.
It was a tiresome thing to listen to, and Tali's patience was growing thin. This was not the thing she wanted to listen to with a hangover and with so much else on her mind.
"Just keep focused on engineering and not on whatever piece of ass happens to walk by, all right?" Gabby said impatiently.
"Are ya my mum now, Gabby?"
"Keelah! Enough!" Tali finally shouted, "no more bickering! Just be quiet!"
The engineers looked at Tali, both seeming a little startled. They gave each other a look, then went back to their consoles. It was quiet. For a brief moment.
"What's 'er problem?" Donnelly asked quietly as he leaned toward Daniels.
"Must be hungover from Shepard's little party last night," Gabby replied from the corner of her mouth.
"I heard that!" Tali barked.
The two engineers kept their mouths shut for a few more minutes this time. Enough time for Tali to finally let her guard down again and try to get her mind to relax once more. However, she quickly noticed whispering going on between Ken and Gabby-whispering that was getting increasingly louder with each exchange.
"...then maybe she wouldn't have yelled at us," Gabby said, her voice growing loud enough for Tali to understand the last part of her sentence.
"It wasn't my fault," Ken replied, also in a slightly louder tone, "you were the one tellin' me what to do."
"I wasn't telling you what to do, I was making a suggestion."
"As if I coul'n't figure it out on my own! Ya know I know how to do my job well enough, Gabby!"
"That's enough," Tali finally shouted in frustration, "clearly something must be done about you two! Always bickering like children! Well, if you're going to behave like children, then I am going to have to treat you like children!"
Tali grabbed Daniels and Donnelly each by a wrist and lead them over toward a crate. The two engineers exchanged confused looks with each other as Tali sat down on the crate, scooting back so that her feet were off the ground and her legs were pointing outward. She pulled Gabby over her knee first, then yanked Ken over her knee alongside Gabby. Tali leaned forward and stretched her arm out to wrap it over Ken's waist in order to keep the two engineers across her lap.
"Wh-what are you doing, Tali?" Gabby asked hesitantly, trying to maintain the professional tone she typically had when dealing with other crew members.
"I'm going to spank you," Tali said matter-of-factly as she put on her omni-tool.
Ken and Gabby exchanged concerned looks. With a few quick modifications to her tool, Tali caused a flat, square-shaped object to appear in her hand from the omni-tool, with a handle for her to hold on to. Though normally such a configuration could be used to hammer in specific objects, Tali had other plans. As she patted the square-shaped object on her hand, she knew it would make for an excellent omni-paddle.
"I really don't think that's necessary-" Kenneth began.
A quick smack on the butt with Tali's omni-paddle cut him off in mid-sentence.
"Ow!" He protested.
"You two have been bickering down here since this was a Cerberus vessel. It's time someone did something about it."
Tali swatted Gabby's bottom, first on the butt cheek closest to her, then the other. She then moved over to Kenneth's bottom and did the same. Each smack with the omni-paddle caused Ken and Gabby to grunt softly. She did another round of this, then a third. Gabby began to kick her feet up and squirm. Kenneth tried to slide away, but Tali grabbed ahold of his shirt and forced him back down across her legs.
"I need to make sure this sinks in, so if I'm going to do this, I need to do it right."
"You don't need to do this, Tali, really," Gabby pleaded.
"I'm going to take down your pants now," Tali informed the two of them.
Tali forcefully put her hand down on Kenneth's back to hold him in place as she yanked down on his pants. She pulled them down to his knees, revealing white briefs covering his bottom. Tali then did the same to Gabby, which revealed white panties. Tali perked an eyebrow as she noticed the two of them were wearing quite similar underwear. She suddenly wondered if all humans wore the same things under their clothes or if it was just part of the Alliance uniform.
Ken and Gabby were both blushing now and avoiding eye contact with each other, embarrassed by their situation.
"I didn't even know Quarians practiced spankin'," Ken muttered quietly without making eye contact with Gabby.
"We don't," Tali interjected, "our suits would make spanking very ineffective, but I've seen this method of punishment among humans and asari, so I figured it was appropriate."
Tali gave another series of swats with the omni-paddle to Gabby and Ken's upturned bottoms. Tali found herself pleased with the practice of spanking. It brought along an immediate reaction from Ken and Gabby. She could understand why it was so popular among other species.
She took a moment to focus exclusively on Gabby, giving her ass firm swats with the omni-paddle, switching back and forth between her cheeks. Gabby moaned and groaned while she wiggled her butt in the air defiantly, but there was no where for her to escape from the omni-paddle. It bounced repeatedly across her panties-covered cheeks. Tali relented once Gabby brought her feet into the air and swayed them back and forth in a quick motion.
Tali then leaned forward and began to give Kenneth the same treatment, striking his bottom with the omni-paddle. His groans were louder than Gabby's, but he struggled much less. She tried to apply the same amount of force behind her swings to Ken as she had with Gabby.
After she felt like Ken and Gabby had received the same level of punishment, Tali grinned and patted her hand with the omni-paddle.
"Now then, are you learning your lesson, Gabby?"
"Yes, ma'am, Tali'Zorah, ma'am," Gabby blurted out in an overly formal tone, though the discomfort in her voice was very noticeable.
Tali had never been impressed with Gabby's forced professionalism, seeing it as a poor attempt at trying to escape revealing her true thoughts and feelings.
"And you, Kenneth?"
"Aye, Tali," Ken said with much less enthusiasm than Gabby.
While Tali always thought of Gabby as too professional, she found Kenneth to never be professional enough.
"Good," Tali said with self-satisfaction, "then we'll continue."
Tali reached down and slid Gabby's panties down to her knees, along with her pants. Gabby gasped and quickly struggled to get off of Tali's lap and pull her panties back up, but Tali grabbed Gabby by the back of the head and gently pushed her forward again until her face was down against the surface of the crate. This motion also forced Gabby's now fully exposed butt to tilt upward into the air.
As Kenneth leaned up to get a better look over his shoulder at Gabby's bottom, he was suddenly distracted by his own briefs being yanked down!
"Hey!" Kenneth shouted, "ya can't do that!"
"W-we've learned our lesson, Tali!" The professionalism was gone from Gabby's voice.
"You're still behaving like children," Tali insisted, "now hold still and take your punishment like adults."
In spite of this advice, the first swats to Gabby's bare bottom made her howl and kick. Her cheeks were already pink, as were Kenneth's. Further swats with the omni-paddle to Kenneth's ass made him grunt and bury his head against the crate.
Tali took a moment to examine the two bare butts over her lap. She was a bit surprised by how hairless Kenneth's bottom was, expecting it to be hairy as she had seen on vids of human males from the extranet. As she struck his cheeks again, she noticed they appeared firm and tight. Gabby's bottom was more plump, and seemed softer than Kenneth's, responding much more visibly as the omni-paddle smacked each cheek.
Tali was beginning to find a nice, smooth rhythm as she continued to spank the two engineers. She moved skillfully from one cheek to the other on Gabby, and transitioned with perfect timing up to Kenneth's buttcheeks, then back down to Gabby's again. She had to hold in a giggle as Gabby and Ken's whining made for an almost musical sound, accompanied by the loud thwaps of the omni-paddle on their asses and the soft, ever-present hum of the Normandy's drive core.
"This is-ow!-all your fault-oooh!-Kenneth!" Gabby barked, wincing in pain as the omni-paddle took its turn on her butt.
"Me?! Oof! If anything-argh!-t'was your fault!"
"Nuh-uh! You were the one-waah!-who wouldn't keep quiet when Tali told you to-owww!"
"I was quiet! You just coul'n't resist-ouch!-another chance at tellin' me what to do-ack!"
Tali furrowed her brow as she listened to the two of them. She felt certain the next smack with the omni-paddle would convince them to shut up, but each time they only paused to moan and whine before continuing the argument.
"I wouldn't have to tell you what to do," Gabby continued, "if you would j-yeoww!-just do what you should have done in-oof!-the first place!"
"I got the same trainin' you did, Gabby, I know-ouch!-I know what I'm doing! Ahh!"
What am I, chopped liver? Tali wondered to herself, unsure if Gabby and Ken had forgotten about her even while she was spanking them.
"I know-OW!-you're a good engineer, Kenneth," Gabby's words were more strained now as she tried to suppress her pain, though she still struggled and squirmed as her bare bottom received more punishment, "but I'm just worried-aaah!-that you might overlook something!"
"Well ya don't treat me-oof!-like ya think I'm a good engineer," Kenneth wiggled back and forth in discomfort as he continued, "we've always watched each other's backs-ohh!-when it comes to this sort'a thing, but ya might try bein' a li'l nicer about it."
Tali's head was beginning to pound as she listened to the two of them arguing.
"Keelah! No more talking! Just...stay quiet and...take your spankings!" Tali said with little conviction. She suddenly began to wonder if this punishment was futile. Regardless, it felt like a good way to relieve her frustrations.
The omni-paddle was gradually bringing a bright red glow to the bare bottoms over Tali's knee. She once again decided to focus her attention on a single engineer, picking Kenneth this time, as she struck his butt cheeks back and forth in rapid succession. He shouted and groaned, but stayed relatively still as Tali rained down spanks with the omni-paddle.
Kenneth clinched his fists in pain. Suddenly, Gabby put one hand gently onto Ken's nearest hand and held it. Ken looked at Gabby, though he was partially squinting in pain. Gabby did not return the look, though she was blushing heavily.
Tali did not notice this, not taking her attention away from her task at hand. She switched over to Gabby, swatting her firmly on her upturned butt cheeks, sending ripples throughout her bottom. Gabby howled and whined and kicked her feet. She continued to instinctively try to move her butt out of the way of the omni-paddle, but it was no use.
It was Ken's turn then to hold Gabby's hand as she endured her punishment. He looked at her reassuringly, though she did not make eye contact with him. She placed her face down against the surface of the crate as she moaned.
"Please, Tali," Gabby begged, "I've had enough!"
Tali stopped the spanking and looked over the two red bottoms in front of her. She pressed a button on the omni-tool and the paddle-like object vanished from it.
"All right," Tali said sympathetically, "I think you two have learned your lesson."
"Aye, Tali," Kenneth agreed.
"You two can get up now."
Kenneth got to his feet and immediately lifted up his briefs and trousers to hide his manhood from any potentially prying eyes. Gabby rose from Tali's lap and began furiously rubbing her sore bottom. She could not help but continue to kick her feet as she stood, doing a little dance in place. Realizing she was making a spectacle of herself, Gabby hurried to compose herself and pulled the front of her panties and pants up to cover herself, though she kept one hand rubbing her cheeks.
Tali stood up from the crate and looked away from the two engineers.
"Sorry if I was too rough on you," she said, unsure of how to proceed from here, "but it was for your own good. Now, I'm going to go see what Chakwas has to help a hangover..."
Tali departed from the engineering section and went to the medic bay. Part of her wondered if she had done the right thing by spanking Gabby and Ken. She was not entirely familiar with the human and asari notion of spanking, so she was unsure if there was some kind of etiquette that went along with it. She hoped she had not offended them too much, as she did like them, and did not want to cause any problems working with them in the future.
When Tali returned to the engineering section, she did not see Daniels or Donnelly at their normal consoles. They were not at the drive core either. Tali wondered where they had run off to, so she decided to check the lower areas of engineering. Tali rarely went down there, as it had been where Jack had stayed when the Normandy was still a Cerberus vessel, and she had always done her best to avoid Jack whenever she could. Even though Jack had not been aboard the Normandy in months, Tali still retained the habit of avoiding that area.
Tali's eyes widened as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She had found the two engineers. Gabby was laying down on her stomach atop one of the tables, with her pants and panties pulled down to her knees. Donnelly was kneeling beside her, and he began to apply medi-gel to her bottom. Gabby cooed with relief as he did so. The two of them had not seen Tali.
She blushed, realizing she was not meant to be seeing any of this, and quickly turned to walk back up the stairs.
"I can't believe Tali spanked us," Gabby said to Kenneth, causing Tali to pause and listen, "I'm so embarrassed."
"She's right, though," Ken began, though his voice did not reflect the twinkle in his eyes as he stared down at Gabby's bare behind, "we probably should try to get along, especially when she's around."
"Yeah," Gabby replied, "Tali's been in the front line with Shepard a ton of times, she's probably under a lot of stress. The last thing she needs is a couple of greasemonkeys like us making it worse."
Tali could not help but grin as she quietly and slowly began to ascend back up the stairs. She wondered if maybe it was a good decision to spank Ken and Gabby. Maybe this had somehow been just what they needed to bring them together. Maybe this would be a new beginning for them and they would finally get along. Maybe-
A loud smack interrupted Tali's thoughts.
"Ow!" came Gabby's voice, "Kenneth! It's still sore!"
"Sorry," Ken said with a chuckle, "I just coul'n't resist!"
"Yeah?"
Tali heard a soft thud.
"Then neither could I," Gabby said angrily.
"Ow! No fair!" Ken complained, "I haven't even had medi-gel yet!"
"Well you're not getting any now," Gabby pouted.
"Aw, come on!"
Tali covered her facemask with her hand.
"Keelah se'lai," she sighed.