Searching for answers

Peering out, you checked that no one else was waiting, then motioned the door closed and collapsed into the nearest chair. Since being discharged from the medical lab this morning, you'd spent the day feeding Holly and Belle, Ginger and Tawny, devised a feeding rotation that you planned to begin following over the next few days, and then met with the ten youngest Cunis. Together, it was exhausting, both physically and mentally. Although you'd initially considered meeting with a few more of Cunis this evening, you were in no mood to visit anymore of them just now.

Instead, you reflected on the recent, unnerving meeting with Daphne. Why was her grammar so much better than other Cunis and why did she look so similar to Lily? She seemed genuinely paranoid that someone or something might be watching you. What was the project she had whispered about? Could finding it provide answers or would it just lead to more unanswered questions? And how could you search about it discretely?

Daphne had appeared worried about the MPAD unit, so instead of using it, you moved to the terminal in your room and started browsing the menus. It had a search function, but searching for 'Project Gradient' would likely be too conspicuous. Instead, you began searching for the Cuni medical records. Perhaps that could reveal something useful. If anyone asked why you were searching, you could say you were checking to ensure that the new feeding rotation wouldn't pose any unexpected risks. Holly had a condition related to her semen intake, and perhaps others might too.

After several dead ends, you finally reached a menu that allowed access to additional info for the Cunis aboard the Starpoint. It contained a plethora of data such as births, deaths, health records, training evaluations and numerous reports from probe experiments for those that participated. The probe data dwarfed the rest of the info by a large margin, but it didn't appear to be useful for your current inquiry. Instead, you started your search by collating the birth records to try to build something akin to a family tree which quickly confirmed some relationships among the bunny girls. Besides the triplets Shasta, Daisy and Jasmine, there were two sets of twins. You'd already met Coca and Moca, but there was another older pair of twins named Silvia and Dove. There were also a couple pairs of sisters. There was Onyx and her younger sister Raven. You'd also met Eveline who had a younger sister named Silene. The only other relationship you found were the cousins Tawny and Ginger. There weren't any mother-daughter relationships, but given that all Cunis were apparently sterilized soon after birth, that wasn't unexpected. It was what you didn't find that surprised you the most. You had expected to uncover some kind of relationship between Daphne and Lily, but apparently there wasn't one.

You took a closer look at Lily's records. She had been born about 10 years ago, which meant she was similar in age to a 40-year-old human woman. She had completed the Basic and Intermediate training programs with very high marks, but she dropped out of the Advanced program soon after being accepted. During the next 4 years she had participated in probe testing, but her current role was listed simply as 'Research'. There were also notes that she'd been diagnosed with some kind of abnormality known as 'Withering' along with some sparse details about a treatment that had been used to keep it in check. After comparing some other records of older Cunis, it appeared that it was fairly common for them to participate in probe testing from around ages 5 to 9, and then move into the research role, whatever that entailed. Based on that, Lily's records didn't seem that unusual aside from her abnormality.

Searches for 'Withering' revealed that it was one of the most common ailments among Cunis 15 years or older. However, it was sometimes observed in younger Cunis with pink-hair. The initial symptoms were sudden onset of gray hair, age spots or wrinkles, followed by rapid aging. The illness was terminal, and within a matter of days or weeks, the outcome was invariably fatal. You then searched for details about the treatment used for Lily, but didn't find anything about it, but you did find some references with a broader search for 'Cuni treatment'. Scanning through them didn't reveal much, and you were about to give up that line of inquiry when you noticed a reference to 'gradient' in one of them. It was part of an article about experimental treatments for Cunis:

"In theory, complex disorders such as the Cuni Withering could eventually be overcome naturally by minute genetic drift across several generations. However, this is not possible with sterilized specimens. Furthermore, modification of lab-created Cunis for such research is not permissible due to Gradient concerns. As a result, any cure or treatment for such a disease is impractical."

You highlighted the term 'Gradient' to see if it could provide more info, but instead it led to a blank menu, as if further information had been intentionally censored. Next you tried searching for Daphne's records, but you discovered that many of her early medical records seemed to be missing or were marked as unavailable. From her training evaluations, she had been scoring in the top percentile of Cunis, but you also noticed she was much more consistent in her scores too. Where other bunny girls might occasionally have some higher scores mixed with lower scores, Daphne's scores were nearly always within a percentage or two of the top. Looking closer, you also noticed something strange. Her answers were usually perfect up until the very end at which point any further answers were omitted. And it didn't occur on just one or two evaluations - that pattern had been happening through nearly all of her exams. Why was she failing to answer the last few questions on each one? It was as if she was trying not to get a perfect score. Was she intentionally trying to hide her intelligence?

When you clicked on the next link for Daphne's evaluations, the screen suddenly went blank. After a moment, a small message briefly appeared at the bottom. "Stop these inquiries. Come to storage level 8 in 20 minutes." Then the message disappeared and the console went black.