While Qiri was moving in on the pregnant Neku she had found in the cargo bay, Megumi kept only half an eye figuratively speaking on the little inquisitor. At the same moment, one of her drones had successfully found an access point for the Starblossom Academy medical database. Something that Megumi was looking forward to processing. She really wanted good news to give her princess. Something she knew Kiru needed. Especially given what recent revelations had revealed. Particularly the ones about the possibility that Kiru might in fact be a mother, and have no knowledge of that fact. Not to mention Megumi also wanted to know how far these breeding programs had actually gone. Indicators indicated the numbers could be large, but she didn’t know for certain how many girls were victims of this program.

Her primary attention focused on the drone in question, as it slipped into the primary databank room via a vent. One that was normally force-shielded, but that shield was currently down for maintenance. In other words, a bit of luck had allowed her drone free access without being detected, especially since the vent was just out of sight from a visual sensor node. A flaw, but not a design flaw. Rather it was just a stupid mistake since someone had planted a crate in front of the vent. Thankfully, not too close to the vent. This gave the drone just enough room to slip through the vent, and recloak.

Her drone’s gaze swept over the room, noting numerous computer banks. A couple of them opened, panels exposed, and even a few circuits removed, as a few Neku were working on the systems. It seemed that the crate was likely full of spare computer parts, part of their current maintenance cycle. Something she didn’t have to worry about, since her own system were thankfully maintained automatically by nanomachines. No need to worry about some technician opening her mainframes up, and messing with her internals. Like any thinking creature that thought was somewhat uncomfortable to her, and sent a shudder down her avatar’s spine. Not that it had stopped her from messing with Kiru’s insides, but that was a completely different sort of thing. Not to mention no doctor could match her skill, so Kiru was perfectly safe. Thinking of that, Kiru was actually the only person that Megumi would allow to mess with her internals. She experienced a slight hiccup at that thought, for 23.1 cycles her processors froze, and then rebooted. Megumi made a note of that, and immediately rededicated resources for a complete internal diagnostic. Something wasn’t right, her processors should not have experienced a complete freeze.

It took her another moment to process all the data she had failed to process in that brief hiccup, and then she refocused on the drone. It had found an active console that no one was watching. There was a sensor node, but it was directional with a scan cycle. One she and by extension, her drone could see. It waited until the node had just finished a pass over the console, and then it made the connection. Taking a few moments to access the control circuits, and then the database, which turned out to be reasonably large. There were thousands of files here, which seemed to be organized by program, and department. She noted the headers down with a few of them standing out. Megumi marked all of those file groups mentally and began making a full copy of the data. Simultaneously she dedicated processing power to read the data as it came in, and analyze it. She quickly identified a program labeled as ‘Girls without mothers.’ That one seemed quite promising for information she wanted.

She poured through the files, and related breeding programs that were linked to it. Quickly discovering the scope of the program. This academy wasn’t the only participant as some files listed other academies as being partners, but she didn’t seem to have full files on the victims of those academies. What she found was bad enough. As there were indeed far too many victims. Searching through the files, she noted the language. A commonality was that all victims of the program were separated from their mothers at very young ages, and their mothers were then wiped of any memory related to their daughters. Many of them had this done to them multiple times, as the files tracked each daughter. Which caretaker they were sent to, and their general health. When they were separated from their caretaker, and what program they were enrolled in.

The files had reference marks to these other programs, the fertility status of these girls, and even tracked which ones had children, and how. Along with notations on how many eggs had been harvested from these girls, and where they had been sent. It seemed there were three general options for that, breeding programs, research, and market. No additional detail was given on what was happening with the eggs they were taking.

 Looking through this long list of files, she eventually came across Qiri’s file, which came with a surprise. Her birth mother was listed, along with date of birth, and when she was taken. Megumi hiccuped again, and reprocessed the file before dropping it into a data bank. That might be a problem. Deciding to delay further processing of the files, she transferred the entire process to a sub-computer and ceased paying attention to the data frame. Returning her attention to other matters, best not to focus on that stuff any longer.

---

Qiri shifted, she had managed to strike up a conversation with Neiru, and older Neku was starting to relax. Perhaps it was time to ease into her questions, start with something seemingly innocent. With a smile she asked, “So may I ask what brought you to this part of the ship, not many frequent these bays.”

She sighed, “I needed someplace quiet to think. I don’t know if you noticed but something strange is going on. I think the medical staff are doing something.”

Qiri blinked, not expecting to get so much with a single question. Perhaps it will be easier with this one than she thought. Of course she still wasn’t sure of the state of Neiru’s conditioning. She frowned, “Strange? Doing something, care to elaborate?”

The girl nodded, “I uh, guess.”

“Take you time, no need to rush.”

“It is not that, I’m just not sure where to begin.”

“Well how about the beginning? When did you first notice whatever it is that you thought was strange?”

She nodded, frowned, and then said, “Well, it started a few weeks ago with my best friend. I’m not entirely sure of the details, but her twelve year old daughter boarded to stay with her about a year ago. I had not seen much of the girl since she came aboard however, and nothing in the last couple of months. So I asked her, and she said she hadn’t seen her daughter either, not for the last six months. She didn’t even know how her daughter was doing. Even more weird was that she seemed utterly unconcerned, maybe even a little happy about this. It was weird.”

Qiri frowned, she had an idea of what happened. Nothing weird there, likely her friend's marriage was dissolved, and the child temporarily transferred to her care. Once a caretaker was lined up, and appropriate conditioning was in place she was taken away. She didn’t mention a word of that, instead she said, “That does sound odd.”

“Well after that, I asked a few more questions, which brought me to look more closely at the medical bay. I began realizing that I couldn’t remember much about my visits there, and when I asked around no one else could either. They seemed weirdly dismissive of that.”

Qiri nodded along, and listened. After a while, “I see. Why don’t we go down, and confront them. Ask them about these things you noticed?” As she said that she reached out, and tried to nudge the girl towards agreeing.

“I guess, but I’m kinda scared to do that on my own.”

Qiri giggled, “Um, didn’t I just offer to go with you?”

The older girl blinked, then her eyes widened, “You did, yeah I think we can do that.”

With that Qiri led her out of the room, but continued to chat. Although nothing of real note was said between either of them. At the same moment, she reached out to let her mistress know what she had found. It was often hard for her to use this ability at range, but she figured her more talented Mistress would be able to hear her. The response that followed was clear, and proved her right mere seconds later. 

A few minutes later, she reached the medical bay with Neiru in tow. Her mistress had been closer, and was already waiting for them. Opuri smiled upon spotting them, and walked up to them. Hey, Qiri! Who’s your friend?”

“This is Neiru,” she paused waiting just a second for Opuri to establish a connection, before saying, “I’m accompanying her for the appointment she is late for.”

Neiru frowned, blinked, her gaze then blanked for a moment, and then she nodded, “Yeah, that’s right.”

Opuri smiled, “I see. Mind if I come with?”

Neiru shook her head, and the three of them entered. Where they were immediately thanked for finding the errant Neku, and then led into an exam bay.

Neiru was prompted to strip, her uniform tossed into a bin kept nearby for that purpose, and then she was asked to lie down on the exam chair. Qiri felt a bit excited, it was not often she got to observe or assist with a recorrection. Especially not one with extra attached.

The nurse on duty smiled, as she affixed a few restraints. They were not often needed, but sometimes proved useful. In this case they might be needed. “Alright sweetie, today we have a few procedures to do in addition to the general conditioning and reinforcement. Which we need extra of, given you tried to hide from us. First up, congrats you have been selected for promotion. As such I will need to sterilize you. Next you are overdue for giving birth, so we are going to be inducing. Don’t worry about your daughters, you will not be seeing them, and we will be erasing all memories of you even being pregnant.”

Neiru frowned deeply, “Sterilized? Birth, what are you talking about? I’m not pregnant, and I don’t want to be sterile. I’d...”

The nurse stroked Neiru’s breast, “Of course you are sweetie. I’m glad to see that the conditioning to keep you from noticing that is still working. It will make my job easier. As for the sterile thing, it's required, but don’t worry about it. We are going to be extracting your eggs, while you won’t have another chance to experience being a mother, your eggs will be used. Not that you will have any say on how, or even remember that the procedure was done. How exciting, don’t you think?”

Her face seemed to disagree, “That, that... that’s horrible. How you can say that with such a straight face?” As Nieru tugged on the restraints. Qiri didn’t agree, it sounded exciting. She thought back to the cabinet. One of those canisters contained her eggs, how many of them, she didn’t know. Idly she wondered how many of her eggs were still in her ovaries. Strangely she was hoping the answer was none. Sure it would mean she would never have a chance to experience being a mother, but it would also mean her eggs were desirable enough that the Iniri took them all. Qiri focused little on that thought, and instead got ready to assist. Opuri had already informed her that she would be, and that thought got her excited, very excited.

She stepped up next to Nieru, and began to rub her head. Helping to relax her stressed fellow, while the nurse prepared the special sterilization jelly. Her belly was then scanned, and her skin marked. They were making sure of the position of her organs, and babies. Qiri glanced at the monitor as it was done, and noted that Neiru had the fortune to be blessed with a litter. She had four little girls growing in her womb, and the nurse wasn’t joking she was obviously overdue. Those girls didn’t have a lot of space left in her belly, even with it so heavily swollen.

A moment later the first needle was pushed into her belly, through a clear path, and right into her left ovary. The nurse confirmed it was in, and secure before injecting the special jelly. The bluish fluid flowed down the clear tube, and into her ovary causing it to swell as her eggs were encapsulated. Once the fluid was in, the nurse twisted the injector slightly, triggering the tube to expand, and widen the entry point. Once it was sufficiently wide, she thumbed a button on the side of the injector. A moment later the jelly began flowing up with the tube now visibly full of eggs. In moments the injector was full with far more eggs than those little canisters they were transporting. It took a couple of moments for the injector to empty the ovary, and in the meantime the nurse did the other one.

As the nurse pulled the first injector she said, “and there, we are one empty ovary, that wasn’t too bad now was it?”

Looking a bit defeated, Neiru said, “...no.”

The nurse handed her the eggs, “put these over there, we will process them later so that they can be put to use. We will need to get rid of the dead eggs, and identify which ones have more desirable genes.”

Qiri nodded, and took the eggs to the counter, “I presume the best eggs will be sent to the breeding programs?”

“Some of them, plenty of the best will actually be sold on the market for civilian use. Iniri civilian use, to be more specific. High quality eggs are quite desired there.”

Qiri replied, “I can see that.” While placing the eggs in a designated location for them. She then walked back over to take the second injector canister.

As she did the nurse rubbed Neiru’s belly. “There we are, all nice and sterile. Now there is no chance of you getting pregnant while performing your duties. If we need your womb, we can always implant. Who knows, maybe you will get to be an incubator for someone’s child?”

Qiri knew there was a good chance of that. Once a girl was sterilized for her duties, it was the only way she could experience a pregnancy. One of the reasons this was done, was because officers were expected to be very sexual creatures, attending not only to the sexual needs of their crew, but also the sexual needs of any Iniri aboard. The high ranking ones were even required to keep their wombs empty for any Iniri that wanted to use her womb to incubate a child. As such it was not desirable for an officer to get pregnant on her own. Of course, there was also the element that being pregnant interfered with their other duties as well, but that could be managed if needed.

Neiru didn’t seem to like the idea of being an incubator though. “Incubator! Who would want to be...”

She cut off as Opuri touched her head, a couple of moments later in an emotionless tone she said, “on second thought, that might be nice. It’s not like I am going to use my womb, so why not let someone else use it.”

That much mirrored Qiri’s thoughts on the subject. Besides as an officer she wasn’t allowed children of her own. If she did get pregnant, she would have to give up the baby anyway. There was a program for that as well, the “Girls without mothers” program was designed to provide for the children of military personnel, and insure any baby born to an officer had a caretaker. In fact that program did a lot for the little girls enrolled in the program. Qiri knew well, since she was enrolled in the program. 

She didn’t have long to think on that before they moved on to inducing labor. At the same time as she was going into an induced labor, Qiri was roped in to assist with conditioning, and memory removals. While she was doing that, Qiri even dived into Neiru’s memories seeking to learn more about what caused her lapse.

---

They had just finished, and she was carrying a baby. They were taking it to a neighboring room for its first check up, when she noted a Neku woman walk in. Qiri recognized her as Nieru’s friend. She was petite, in a full nude uniform with perky breasts, bright green eyes, healthy black hair, and fur, and a large swollen pussy that was glistening. Her nipples were full, and swollen as well indicating a strong state of arousal. Qiri had a feeling she had recently had sex in fact. No surprise there, given the rank marking attached to her breast just below the nipple, she was of the same rank as Neiru, which meant she would be encouraged heavily to mate, and also meant she was likely already sterile. In fact it would be weird if she was not sterile.

A nurse noted her entry, smiled and said, “Ah, Meri you’re right on time. We just finished getting ready for you. Are you ready to have the remaining memories of your daughter extracted?”

She nodded, “Yes, I’m looking forward to no longer being able to remember her.”

“You should be, and to make sure how do you feel about not having seen her in six months? How do you feel about not being informed about how she is doing.”

“I’m happy about that. It lets me focus on my duties, and I don’t have to keep myself abreast of her well being.”

“Good, sounds like the conditioning is doing its job. On a side note, at our next stop you will have a chance to see her. How do you feel about that?”

“Well if the procedure goes well, I won’t be able to recognize her. I’m not sure.”

Curious, Qiri  said “There will be a chance? I take it her daughter is at the facility we are heading to?”

The nurse nodded, “Yep, the facility took her six months ago as a test subject. I’ve been allowed to review some of the work they have been doing on the little lady, and it is quite fascinating.”

Qiri shifted, “oh? That sounds interesting. Maybe I’ll have a chance to take a look at what they have been doing.”

“Look forward to it! I found it quite intriguing.”

Meri interjected, “I’m especially glad I am not going to remember this. I don’t think I am comfortable knowing my daughter is being used as a test subject.”

The nurse smiled, “You should be proud of her. The little lady has made a fascinating test subject, and proven quite useful to several projects.”

“I see, but it still makes me uncomfortable. I’m not sure I can approve, especially without knowing what they are doing to her.”

“Ah but that is precisely the point. As her mother you wouldn’t have approved of any of it, which is why we took her from you. Besides at this point, you no longer have any jurisdiction over her. We had you legally sign that over, not that you have any choice there. Anyway, there is something to discuss even if you were to be allowed to remember the discussion.”

Meri frowned, “Oh?”

“The facility has requested the use of your womb. I’ll need you to sign a couple of things to make it official, and when we get to the facility we will be implanting several embryos into your belly.”

“I see, but I’m supposed to avoid being pregnant.”

“Unless your womb is requested for use yes.” said the nurse as she produced a few documents. “Now sign here.”

Meri simply signed where indicated without even reading it. Qiri decided it was time to move on, and headed to the next room. She had new things to look forward to. Qiri got started following her instructions on the full exam for the newborn infant, and interestingly first stage conditioning. Opuri was by that point in the room doing the same to another infant, and she asked, “Did they do this to me when I was a newborn?”

Opuri nodded, “Naturally, the infant mind is completely defenseless. It's a very simple matter to start conditioning an infant, which is why we start as soon as they are born. You were no different. I have a record of your conditioning, you were quite receptive. Exceptionally receptive, as your conditioning was largely finished by the time you were two. Most girls would need more work, and would not have been in the same stage until five.”

Qiri felt a surge of pride, “I’m glad I was so receptive. I had fun then. She always had fun people to introduce me to, even left me a few times with her friends. They were always interesting.”

Opuri smiled, “Well of course, it was her job to raise you right, and then just drop you at the academy. Anyway, I’m about done here, ready to go back? I have a few lessons for you, and the nurses can handle the rest.”

Qiri nodded, and they finished up before handing off the newborn infants to the nurses. It was time to head back to their room.

---

Megumi turned her attention away from that, as she processed what she saw. In the background she was still thinking about what she had learned about Qiri. It left her with an interesting question. The girl wasn’t any random Neku. The possibility however had not been something she had been actively considering either. Left with questions about her, she finally decided to talk to Kiru about it.

Glancing at her new archive, she also had Kiru’s file to review. Something she had so far left unprocessed, and unopened. Megumi proceeded to order the subcomputer to copy it onto a portable data crystal. The reason she didn’t do it herself was to avoid processing the data in the file, she didn’t want to know it. Not yet, that way when she shared it with Kiru the contents would be as much a surprise to her, as they were to Kiru. Well, mostly anyway. There was one small hiccup with that idea, one she found too minor to address.