Megumi stretched her avatar, and sighed. She had promised Kiru that she would locate her file, but that was going to take some time. How long was a matter of debate. Not to mention there were quite a few objectives she wanted to complete with the limited number of drones she had over at the Starblossom Academy. A couple of them were already leaving to follow Qiri. While her drones had the ability for self-replication, that required time and resources. She had already done some replication where the opportunity had presented itself. Doing it too much, however, and she knew the base would end up on alert for suspicious activity

With that in mind she allocated a drone to try to find a possible access point to the local Iniri medical database. Which was one of several databases she wanted a look at. The Iniri had chosen to compartmentalize their military databanks, and these computers had the very simple defense of being on isolated networks. While Megumi was not sure what the point of that was, it was a simple, and effective method to protect data. Although there were a few signs that not every Iniri agreed with what they were doing. Terqu seemed to be going along with it, but it had not escaped Megumi’s notice that she was uncomfortable with some of what they were doing. Setting the shuttle back on a course to the Constellation, she prepared to wait while the nano-virus was prepared. Since she had not bothered to make any yet, that was going to take some time, even with her advantages.

Qiri took a look around the cabin she was to be sharing for the next few days with her new boss. They had boarded a fast cruiser at the academy docks, not one of the usual transports visiting the academy. An actual cruiser, a full-fledged cruiser. This ship, the NIS Wings of Rethu, was a Vanguard class heavy cruiser. The Vanguard class was the smallest line of heavy cruisers in the fleet and designed to be sent ahead of the main fleet, intended mainly for combat recon missions, but like any cruiser it could serve other roles.  The class was renowned for its speed, able to outrun most other ship classes in the fleet. Qiri had been told a bit about the class, including weaponry, shielding, and engines. The ship was most notable for its two plasma beam arrays, its powerful engines, and a defense grid that gave it an excellent chance to withdraw if outmatched. As such, not only were Vanguards used for recon missions, they often found themselves assigned to special fleet groups and raiding assignments. Of course, their speed and strong sensors also made them useful for patrol missions. The ship was modular which allowed them to be further specialized based on the needs of the mission at hand.

The cabin before her was modest but well furnished, befitting a small capital ship like this one. The floor was standard military deck plating, but a lovely mat had been placed down for comfort. Against the right-hand wall, was a large bed, more than enough space for two people. Against the rear wall was a large cabinet, and shelves. The cabinet did not seem to be standard issue, as it looked unique. There was an attached bathroom on the left-hand side, fully equipped, and the room came with a desk. A heavy duty terminal was even set up on the desk. Unlike some of the other crew cabins she had noticed there was no closet, but there were a couple of drawers under the bed. Several shelves lined the wall, and there was a trunk at the foot of the bed.

Her boss smiled, “Looks like they had a nice cabin available. We will be sharing the bed, but don’t worry about the usual duties that a fresh officer attendant such as yourself might be expected to fill. You are exempt from those, and if anyone does try to use you in that manner, inform me immediately.”

She blinked, “I thought since I am now officially an adult...”

“That you would have to put out, and be free to use like your fellows? Some might expect you to do that, but I don’t. Just because a silly ID says, otherwise. Speaking of, let me see yours.”

Qiri pulled it off her belt, and handed it over. Unsure why her superior wanted it. As soon as she had it, the elder Iniri headed over to the terminal and slipped it into a reader. While saying, “Don’t worry about this, just go ahead and put those eggs in that cabinet. It was specially designed, and installed at my request for them.”

Qiri nodded, opened the cabinet, and slowly transferred the canisters into the safe. It simply looked like a cabinet, but it had a lock, was armored, and the inside was specially designed to hold the canisters the eggs were secured in. They would be quite secure in there.

Just as she was slipping the last canister into the final slot, her boss extended a tentacle with her ID. She took it, and looked it over. There had been a change. Her full body image was the same, along with most of the usual fields such as age, service number, and rank. Like many of the newer ID’s there was a field for sexual status that most were conditioned to ignore. Hers now had a new little marking added to it.

“What’s this?”

“Basically it marks you as protected, rather than free-use like most officers are. Technically I claimed you, which means no-one can touch you without my permission.”

Qiri blinked, she’d been claimed? Already? The academy had told her what to expect about that. She felt honored to have been claimed. She smiled, “I’m in your care, Mistress.”

“Call me Opuri,” she paused, “Now I have a few things to do. Why don’t you make a few rounds of the ship? Explore, and come back later in the evening. We can eat then, and get started on your instruction?”

She nodded, and with proper manner responded, “Will do, Mistress Opuri.”

Opuri sighed, “Just ‘Opuri’ would do, young lady. Now run along, we will talk again later.”

Qiri nodded, and left the cabin. Stepping out she was greeted to the sight of a number of crewwomen moving through the corridor. A mix of uniform styles were on display, about half the girls in the hall were in full nude uniforms like herself, but a few were in the more general uniforms. She paid attention to those, looking for closed flaps, as it would be highly inappropriate to have closed breast or pussy flaps here. She didn’t spot any, a good sign.

After a moment, she picked a direction and started walking. Noting the various cabins, looking around, and taking in key features of the ship. She was going to be living here for a bit, so it made sense to do some exploring. To get a feel for the ship. Not to mention it would make her better able to serve her new mistress. She had a good feeling about her mistress, and she already wanted to serve her well. A good sign about things to come.

Qiri was on one of the lower decks, it had been a couple of hours since she had started her tour of the ship. While she was at it, she had started doing rounds. Picking people at random to talk to, and extending her mental abilities to probe them. Getting a feel for how they were following their conditioning. As she moved around she was noting how few of them were actually pregnant, for some reason she kept thinking more of them should be pregnant. Why, she didn’t know, but one in four seemed to be a good number.

Rounding a corner, a younger crewman nearly bumped into her. She quickly apologized, “Sorry, didn’t see you.”

Qiri looked her over, she was petite, and in a full nude uniform. The marking of which identified her as part of the medical staff. Her skin seemed a little flushed, and there was clear panic in her movements. “Um, is everything alright?”

The girl shook her head, “Have you seen Neiru? She is late for her...”

Qiri shook her head, “I don’t think so, but I’m kind of new aboard. I don’t know who that is.”

“Younger officer, lieutenant’s marking. She has a medium build, a little under one fifty in height, average breasts, dark auburn fur, and hair. Fluffy tail, and a cute slightly childish face.”

Qiri listened to the description, but that fit a few people. A moment later the nurse pulled a photo off her belt, “See, I have a picture of her here.”

Qiri studied it, and then replied, “I have not seen her. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Please do, we need her in the medical bay.”

Qiri watched the nurse run off, and mentally noted this Neiru down. It seemed she might have just found a clue about an anomaly. Crewmen and officers were conditioned to always be punctual about visiting the medical bay.  Since this girl hadn’t, it was probable she was hiding somewhere. With that in mind, Qiri started thinking about where one would hide on the ship.

Qiri slipped into one of the auxiliary cargo bays, she had checked a couple others already. Using the ship’s computer she had narrowed down the likely areas to hide from the medical staff to be the low traffic areas. It was a rookie mistake, but a common one. So it was exactly the base to cover first. She doubted much that the anomaly Neiru had the presence of mind to think up a better plan to avoid notice. The only reason an alert wasn’t out was to avoid alarming the young officer.

Qiri was curious about this, something must have spooked her. Possibly a sign that someone hadn’t conditioned her to ignore things properly. Still it did leave one to wonder what she had noticed, to leave her spooked. Whatever it was, it was something to be fixed.

With those thoughts in mind she took a look around the room. Like any storage bay there were stacks of grav boxes stowed throughout the room. In this case unspecified supplies slated for delivery at their next destination. Qiri didn’t know what was in the boxes, but wasn’t planning to look. There was likely a reason the items were simply unspecified in the cargo manifest. There were even special instructions for the crew to avoid this room, which made it a good place to hide. Qiri had not checked this room first because of the conditioning meant to keep crew out of the room, but it was possible that the conditioning for this Neiru was poor enough that she had found her way here.

Rounding a stack she came across a female figure sitting on a crate, and looking a bit distressed. She was quite cute, lovely dark auburn hair, average breasts, a bit short with a nice long and fluffy tail. Upclose Qiri noted something that had not been mentioned to her as well, the girl was pregnant. Very pregnant, judging by the swell of her belly. Qiri smiled, it seems she had found her first anomaly. Planning to impress her mistress, Qiri slowly approached. She didn’t want to alarm the girl, she needed to get her to medical where she was supposed to be at the moment.