Little Girl Lost

Sobbing. That's how this whole thing had started.

After his meeting with the Citadel Council, Commander Shepard had opted to split up the shore party in hopes of covering more ground. They needed to find something, anything that would prove Saren's treachery, and they needed it yesterday. He'd sent Ashley to search Chora's Den for that C-Sec reject, Harkin, and went to the Embassy Lounge himself. That had left Kaidan Alenko holding the short straw, and heading toward the Emporium to question some information broker named Barla Von.

Before he'd even reached the volus' office, the lieutenant had caught a sound at the edge of his awareness. It somehow seemed out of place in the quiet calm of the Presidium. The noise drew him away from the main thoroughfare to an alleyway to the left of his original destination. It wasn't until he'd gone halfway down the narrow passage that he recognized the sound for what it was: Someone was crying.

Unsure of what he'd find, but concerned all the same, Kaidan quickened his pace. Taking a right-hand turn (without even checking his corners first, a fact that escaped him at the time), he came to an abrupt halt at the empty space before him. There was no one there. Confused, he blinked several times as his eyes adjusted to the change in lighting, scanning the apparent dead-end.

A potted plant in that corner, a stack of crates over there. . .ah. It was somethingyou'd have missed if you weren't paying close attention. The toe of a tiny black shoe was visible at the corner of the bottom crate. Cautiously, the dark-haired man moved along the wall opposite the crates to get a better look. Tucked back in between the crates and the wall sat a small blue child in a black dress and matching tights. Her little knees were drawn up into her chin and she was crying into her folded arms. She was completely oblivious to his approach until he was less than three feet away. Her head snapped up suddenly, her eyes almost tripling in size. If it were possible for her to become one with the wall behind her, it looked like she would have done just that.

As she tried to scoot farther away, Kaidan stopped moving. The last thing he wanted was to spook this kid any more than she already appeared to be. Without even thinking, he slowly knelt to the floor in an unconscious attempt to get closer to the girl while making himself appear less threatening. It seemed to work. Though her clear blue eyes still followed his every movement, she stopped trying to get away from him.

'Well, that's a little progress,' he thought to himself.

"Hi," he said gently. She simply looked at him, though her widened eyes seem to contract somewhat as he spoke. Taking this as a good sign, he kept talking. "My name's Kaidan. Who are you?"

She remained silent, a look of confusion moving to replace the fear that had covered her face when he'd found her. 'Not much of a conversationalist, I see," he thought. Then, he mentally slapped himself. 'She's what, six years old? Maybe seven? Were you expecting her to quote quantum theory or something?' Keeping in mind the massive age difference between them, he tried again. "How did you wind up here all by yourself?"
Finally, the little girl spoke. "I broke my bracelet." She held up her right arm, and her previous silence began to take on a whole new meaning. The "bracelet," was actually a small language translator. The plastic cover was cracked, and the screen was completely dark. It was clear the device was broken. It dawned on the man that while he could understand her words well enough. . .

Oh, for the love of. . .This poor kid has no idea what I'm saying. Now, he was at a loss. How was he supposed to help her if they couldn't communicate properly? Moving slowly, he activated his omni-tool, hoping it would help him find a solution. She jumped slightly as the orange hologram materialized around his arm."It's okay," he found himself saying, even though he knew the words were little more than gibberish to her ears. "It's just a little computer. I'm using it to look up stuff. See?" Kaidan moved his left arm toward the miniature asari, letting her take a closer look as he tapped at the keys.

He struck on an idea. He quickly changed the settings on his own translator so they would broadcast through the speakers on his omni-tool. "Let's try this again. Once more, without the 'oops'." A moment after the sentence ended, a strange, slightly lilting stream of sounds emitted from the device on his wrist.

Her eyes alighted with recognition, and she said with an air of certainty, "You talk funny." His face must have fallen at that, because he was rewarded with a giggle. He smiled slightly, relieved by her mirth, and got right back to business.

"So, how did you break your bracelet?"

After the translation finished, she eyed him sheepishly. "I ran into a tree."

This surprised him. "And how, exactly, did you manage to run into a tree?"

"I didn't see it."

In his head, he rolled his eyes. He couldn't blame the kid, though; her logic was pretty sound, for a six year old. However, that wasn't helping him get to the root of the problem at hand, which was. . .

"Where are you supposed to be right now?"

"School."

"And why aren't you at school?"

The little girl started to fidget and wouldn't look at him. Kaidan simply waited for her to answer. His patience wasn't endless, but it was pretty substantial, nonetheless.
Finally, "I was playing near the water, but I wasn't 'posed to be."

Playing near the water. . .she must mean the lake. "Where was your teacher?"
Her eyes filled with tears again. "I don't remember. And Miss Sussman's gonna be so mad at me. . ."

Sounds like that's her teacher, most likely. "I'm sure she won't be too mad, especially if we get you back to her real soon. Okay?"

There was a long pause, followed by a sniffle. Then, a nod. "Okay."

*/*/*/*/*

Officer Vakarian just really didn't have time for this shit.

It was bad enough the Council wouldn't even meet with him in regard to his current investigation. Correction: Hissupposedly closed investigation. Now he was being sent on a wild pyjack chase around the Presidium to deal with a lost child. This was so beneath his pay grade; he had to wonder whether the universe was punishing him for his apparent failure by drowning him in minutiae.

Let it go, they said. Ha. That was laughable. If they thought a direct order was all it took to get Garrus off this case, then they didn't know him very well at all. However, until he had a new lead, he was stuck with more mundane matters. Like this one unfolding before him, for example.

A call had come in from some Alliance soldier to the C-Sec switchboard not long ago stating that an asari toddler had been found unattended near the Financial District. Since Garrus was already in the area, not having trusted himself to go back to headquarters until he had his head on straight, guess who was supposed to handle it?

He sighed. Much as he hated to admit it, everything in regard to exposing the rogue Spectre now hinged on that human, Shepard. Garrus was only peripherally aware of the Alliance commander before this morning. Anyone who ever listened to the Galactic News Network knew about the Skyllian Blitz, but you could only learn so much about someone from a single mission report. Intrigued by all the. . .what was the human term? Hubbub? Yes, the hubbub over the man's arrival on Citadel Station had spurred the turian to find out more about this person that seemed so much larger than life to so many. To be honest, there hadn't been much outside his time with the military, save a 20-year-old news article about a church fire back on Earth, and he couldn't even be sure it was about the same person.

You could tell a lot about a man by the company he kept, though. While his interaction with the commander had been brief, his interactions with his human comrades had been even moreso. That woman, the Gunnery Chief, had barely looked at Garrus, let alone spoken to him. Having no other information, he assumed her behavior was based on the ever-present animosity between their two species, and left it at that. The lieutenant, though, had been quite blunt about their need to proceed to the Council chambers, acting as if Garrus was impeding their progress intentionally. It had rubbed the turian the wrong way, initially.
Okay, he had been impeding their progress, but to be fair, it had been for a good reason, and they had walked up to him, not the other way around.

While the C-Sec officer wasn't sure what to make of the man's subordinates, the short exchange had spoken volumes about their commanding officer. While not overt, Shepard had sent a sidelong glance at his silent chief, which indicated her lack of comment was unusual and that it hadn't gone unnoticed. The fact he'd immediately cut the conversation short at the lieutenant's urging suggested that the commander held the other man's input in high regard.

Not that it really mattered in the grand scheme of things. Garrus was pretty sure he'd never see the trio again, but being an investigator wasn't something you could exactly switch off at will.

As he approached the back alleys near the Financial District, Officer Vakarian shoved all thought on that brief meeting aside to focus on the matter at hand. Ignoring the fact that this assignment was now filed under "random crap not related to Saren", he still had a job to do. Turning the corner that led to the back entrances of the bank and some other offices, he came upon a man in Alliance-issue armor speaking in low tones to a small blue child at his feet.

The armored man turned to face the detective, and in that moment, Garrus Vakarian no longer wondered if the universe was laughing at him. No, he was now certain he was the butt of some cosmic joke, without a shadow of a doubt.

"Lieutenant Alenko," he said with no small amount of weariness. "How nice to see you again."

*/*/*/*/*

Janie Sussman was frantic. One of her students was missing, and it was all her fault.
Not once in the four years she'd been working at the Presidium Conservatory had anything like this happened, to her or any other teacher. She'd always been so careful, but today she'd dropped her guard for no more than a few seconds. . .and now her entire world was falling apart.

The Keepers had shown up without warning (as was their way) earlier that day to perform maintenance on the carbon-dioxide scrubbers in that portion of the station. Such a disruption served to drive every one of the children in the very exclusive school to distraction, and the teachers had collectively come to the decision that a walking field trip was in order if anything resembling organization was to be maintained. It was mostly pretense, since nearly every child there had more than a passing familiarity with this area of the Citadel. Still, young children had boundless energy, no matter the species, and without focus that energy would soon turn into uncontrolled chaos. Best to cut it off at the pass, as the saying went.
As they'd walked past the Financial District and made their way to the markets, in hopes the hustle and bustle of the shopping district would serve to keep their minds (and hands) occupied, an argument had erupted between two boys in her class. That was the only time that Janie's attention had been diverted, which had to be the exact moment that little Kayla Tevos chose to wander away from the group.

With her worry growing with every passing second, one thought ran through her mind, on endless loop: Kayla, sweetie. . .why, oh why did you run off?