This story was written for the Anime North 2013 Fanfiction writing contest.
I originally had not intended to participate, but as my Silicon mold making workshop ran late (by one hour) and the fanfiction writing contest was happening in the same room, I figured I might as well contribute. I wouldn't have made it on time for the other panel that interested me anyways as it was in another hotel. All that to say that this story was written in 40 min and by hand... so it's not the best, but hey, I'm still pretty proud of it and it was a good creativity exercise ;)

The only limitation was that somewhere in the fic this sentence had to be used:

He (or she) looked out the window and took a step back in astonishment.

CITADEL EFFECT

Mya Shepard had just turned eight years old weeks ago and she was proud of it. To mark the occasion, her mother was bringing her to the Citadel. Not that it was leave time. Her mother actually had business on the Citadel, but that didn't make an ounce of a difference to eight year old Mya.

Mya could say that she was both lucky and unlucky in life. Unlucky because both her parents belonged to the Systems Alliance and this meant that more often than not she lived with only one of her parents. The one that was stationed on ground at the time while the other one was doing his or her tour of duty aboard one the Alliance's ships. On the other hand, she was lucky because she also got to live in all those awesome places all over the galaxy, or Alliance's territory at least. So she couldn't complain, and she wasn't in fact. She was actually pretty happy with her lot.

And the fact that today she was actually getting to see the famous Citadel had her quite excited. She had been pestering everyone she came across with questions about said space station since she got aboard the ship. She already knew much about it, but that didn't keep her eight year old mind from finding new questions to ask, even if it was just to reaffirm an answer she already had. And she just couldn't wait to see all of the races who frequented the Citadel. She'd never seen a Hanar or a Drell in the flesh. Though she hoped to avoid any encounter with a Batarian or a Vorcha. She wasn't very keen on meeting what was known as the slaver race and the vermin of the galaxy. But hopefully she'd make some friends with whom she could stay in contact once she'd get back home. Her mother was calling it "creating a réseau". Her father was calling it "sucking it up to people". She was calling it "making friends". And she was good at it.

She wondered if she'd get to see the Council, though she doubted it. She had a feeling her mother would drop her at some sort of day-care centre for her business part of the trip. She did promise they'd get to visit the station a bit however. Mya couldn't stop herself from skipping everywhere she went; that's how happy she was. She was thinking of finding her mother again when an announcement was made over the ship's PA system.

"Approaching mass relay. ETA to Citadel, 15 minutes."

That was it! They were very soon to be at the Citadel! Mya couldn't help the cry of joy and childish victory that escaped her. And it's how her mother found her.

"Mya, come. You'll be able to see everything from the bridge."

Mya was so overflowing with giddiness that she could have burst. And her bursting would have created a rainbow with fairies. Or that's what she thought. As they approached the bridge, Mya saw the start of the blue hue that would surround the ship as they entered the mass relay. That was something in itself, but not what she really wanted to see at the moment. And before she could grow impatient, just as an eight year old can, the ship made the jump and there it was, the moment of truth.

She looked out the window and took a step back in astonishment. The Citadel was huge! And as she moved towards the window again, her eyes big as saucers, she couldn't help but murmur one thing: "So many adventures waiting to happen..."