2185
Citadel/Widow Nebula

The Doctor and Tali followed Mordin into the salarian councilor's office, all three of them walking rapidly. The councilor (whom the Doctor vaguely remembered from Liara's memories) was talking to a group of salarians, huddled together. He turned and walked over, then paused midway. "Mordin Solus," he said, his voice a bit higher than Mordin's. "I'm glad you could come, but who are-"

"Tali'Zorah vas Neema," Mordin said, nodding to the quarian. "Saved the Citadel two years ago." He looked over at the Doctor and hesitated, then said, "Doctor Smith. Fellow scientist."

The Doctor didn't bother adding a correction. If Morin thought that was the best way to proceed, he'd go along with it.

The councilor - Valern - looked like he wanted to protest, but a burst of sound from the salarians in the corner seemed to make his mind up for him. "It's a stroke of luck that you were here," he said. "C-Sec sent me a routine notification when you arrived. There's a … delicate situation, and I hesitate to involve them. I'd rather have someone whose loyalties are undivided."

Mordin folded his arms across his chest. "Currently serving with Commander Shepard," he said, his voice challenging. "Problem?"

"Commander Shepard? The savior of the Citadel?" one of the salarians in the corner said. "Councilor, quit wasting time! My daughter is missing!"

Mordin recoiled backwards, his eyes going wide, his back stiffening. "Daughter?" he said. "Missing?"

The salarian nodded frantically. "I had business to conduct here, and my Laran begged me to let her come … she's never been off of Sur'Kesh. She said she wanted to see the other races."

"You should not have given into her!" one of the other salarians said, a female if the Doctor was correct. "Look at what happened!"

"Dalatrass, please," Mordin said. "No time. Must find her." He turned to face the first salarian - the missing girl's father, it appeared. "Take us to where she was last seen. Will start from there."

"But that includes a human and a quarian-" the Dalatrass began again.

"Professor Solus is correct," Valern cut in. "There is no time, and he is the best person to help us. If he insists on bringing companions, I must insist that you allow it." He folded his arms across his chest. "They serve with a council Spectre, and the council has full trust in its Spectres. Thus, I have full trust in … them."

"Good. Settled, then," Mordin said, nodding decisively. "Lead us."

—

"That was a load of crap if I ever heard one," Tali confided in an undertone to the Doctor as the frantic father lead them back to the apartment they'd been staying in. "I'm surprised Valern got it out with a straight face."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked.

"The council says it has full trust in its Spectres, but they've never once taken Shepard seriously," Tali said. "Not even after everything she said the first time was proven right. She told me that they only reinstated her after she promised to stick to the Terminus Systems and not cause any trouble. But they can't say that they think she's crazy in public, and she is still a hero to many people. Salarians included, apparently."

Mordin looked over his shoulder at them, and they hastened to catch up. The father was explaining how the apartment belonged to his clan and was one he'd used on business before. "Security's usually so tight," he said. "I can't imagine how someone got in without anyone noticing! She couldn't have been alone for long - I should never have left her alone at all. The child-minder was running late, and I would've been late for the meeting if I hadn't left then. I can't believe I was so wrapped up in the business deal that I let my daughter get taken."

"Trained professional," Mordin offered. "Good at circumventing security. Tali. Check the security feeds for signs of tampering, hacking?"

"I'm on it, Mordin," Tali assured him.

"Doctor. Examine girl's room. See if anything looks out of place. Will talk to father."

The Doctor started to nod, then hesitated. "You know what would be out of place better than I would. I'll talk to the father."

Mordin's eyes narrowed slightly. "Positive?"

"I'm good with people," the Doctor said, his tone softening slightly. "Trust me."

Mordin considered, then gave a sharp nod. "All right. Talk to father. Garid."

"His name is Garid?" the Doctor asked, just to be sure, and was relieved to see Mordin nod.

They entered the apartment building and Tali promptly peeled off to examine the security feeds. When they got to the apartment the salarian family had been staying in, Mordin headed for the daughter's room while the Doctor stayed in the living room with the father. For a moment he wondered if he should have stuck with Mordin's original suggestion, but then he shook his head and took matters into his own hands. He took a seat next to Garid and looked at the salarian's face, trying to meet his eye.

"Tell me about her," he said. "Laran."

Garid looked up at him. "I see her every once in a while," he said after a long moment. "I'm lucky that I get to spend as much time with her as I do. I couldn't believe it when Hira said that I could see her. I don't know how she does it with all of them to raise. Well, she has lots of help. All mothers do." He was speaking faster than before, wringing his hands together. "Hira gave me permission to take her. Salarian females don't leave their home worlds normally. Not unless they're Dalatrasses." He hung his head. "My clan will never live this down."

"We're going to get her back," the Doctor reassured him. "What's she like?"

"Smart," Garid said. "Very smart. Picks up everything the first time. Talks about wanting to do something scientific like her brothers. She's destined for politics, of course, but - I can't help but encourage her. I work with computers. So I gave her one that she could play around with." He laughed a little, some of the tension easing out. "She used it to hack her brothers' terminals. Got them in trouble. Hira was furious when she found out. Gave her a lecture about the responsibilities a female has to her clan. Clans."

"Bright girl," the Doctor said softly. "She sounds resourceful and quick on her feet. If that's the case … she might get herself out of trouble."

"But she's just a child!" Garid said, practically falling forward as he put his head in his hands. "Not even three years old yet. I can't - I couldn't live with myself if something happened to her."

"We'll find her," the Doctor said, placing a hand on the salarian's shoulder. "I promise you that. I will find her and bring her home to you."

Garid lifted his head up, slowly, and tilted his gaze towards the Doctor. "I believe you," he said, sounding surprised. "I actually believe that. Thank you - whoever you are. Thank you for giving me hope."

The Doctor smiled, feeling proud of himself, and looked up to see Mordin exiting the girl's room. "Doctor. See if Tali is done with security yet?" he asked. "Few questions for Garid."

The Doctor nodded and exited towards the lobby, taking the elevator down. He met Tali as she was heading towards the elevator. "Whoever did this was smart enough to hack the security feed," she said. "It's a fairly decent setup, too. There was some level of planning. Did you and Mordin find anything?"

"Mordin might have," the Doctor replied. "He sent me to find you. He said he had a few more questions for Garid." Something was itching at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp it yet. He ground his teeth and tried to pin it down, causing Tali to give him a sidelong glance.

Mordin was waiting for them outside the elevator. "Have a better idea of what happened," he said, entering and pressing the button for the lobby. His mouth was tight with concern. "Girl was not kidnapped. Girl ran away."

"Of course," the Doctor said, smacking the heel of his hand against his forehead. "Garid gave her a terminal and she promptly became a little hacker-in-training. She hacked the security feed. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she somehow caused her minder to be running late as well."

Mordin's face was surprised, and he'd have bet every room on the TARDIS that Tali's was wearing a similar expression behind her mask. "Makes sense to you?" Mordin asked. "Cannot conceive of it. Cannot fathom."

"From what Garid told me, the girl was starting to feel like she was being shoehorned into something she didn't want," the Doctor said. "You salarians are mad on tech and science, well, she got the bug too, and didn't like being told that she had to go into politics and live a tightly-controlled life."

"But - salarians imprint," Mordin said. "Very difficult to disobey authority figures. Parents. Dalatrasses. How could she overcome that?"

"Well, no one ever told her not to run away," the Doctor said. "They just assumed she wouldn't. And you said it's very difficult to disobey, not that it's impossible. She begged her father to let her come to the Citadel. A place where you can do anything you want, or so she saw it."

"She was smart enough to disable the security cams in this building," Tali said slowly. "But I bet that she didn't bother with the other cameras in the area. We can trace her steps that way."

"Will call Councilor Valern, and get permission," Mordin said, starting to activate his omni-tool.

"No need," the Doctor said, bringing out the psychic paper again. "I'm a special undercover C-Sec operative, remember?"

—

The psychic paper did, in fact, get them into the local C-Sec outpost without any issues. From there they accessed the surveillance footage and discovered that Laran had caught rapid transit to Bachjret Ward. "Dominated by asari," Mordin said. "Relatively friendly, as far as relations with salarians go. Salarians would send her straight home. Asari might give her a chance."

"I'd feel better about her safety among the asari if I hadn't seen the number of asari working as ruthless mercenaries and even slavers," Tali said grimly.

Mordin looked troubled, but shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Have to get her home. Soon."

"Mordin is right. We can't focus on what might happen," the Doctor said. "Can we access the feeds from Bachjret Ward here?"

Tali looked over her shoulder to see how far away the C-Sec officer was, then turned back and started typing. "Just watch me," she said in a playful tone. "I'll even get the feeds for the Council Chamber."

"Not necessary," Mordin said after a moment's hesitation.

"Tempted, Professor Solus?" Tali asked.

"Never," Mordin said, attempting to keep a straight face - and failing miserably.

The Doctor just chuckled at that. It was good to be hunting down something that he could understand. He still didn't have a grasp of the Reapers, even after his conversations with Harbinger. But combing through a busy space station to find a missing child - he could manage that.

"There," Tali said, pulling up a window. "She exited in the commercial district."

"Looking for a place to work?" the Doctor mused aloud. "Somewhere that she could feel useful?"

"And appreciated for her skills," Tali said. "For what she wants to do and is good at doing."

"But would they really hire a young girl?" the Doctor asked.

"They might," Tali replied. "One of the smaller companies, maybe. One that would use any edge to get ahead, and wouldn't care as much about employing an underage girl. There are probably enough legal loopholes that they could find some way to do it."

"More surveillance?" Mordin asked.

"Let me see." Tali tapped at the keyboard again, frowning. "Not that much. Gets too crowded after that. I'd have to spend more time refining the image."

"And our time is better spent going down there ourselves," the Doctor said. "How do we get to Bachjret Ward?"

"The same way she did, I'd imagine," Tali said, closing down the surveillance windows. "Probably for the best that we move on. Someone at C-Sec might notice what I'm doing."

"I'm hurt that you don't think I'd get you out of it," the Doctor said, feeling a grin split his face.

"Hah," Tali said. "The girl's ahead of us, and there's a lot of places she could be, so we'll need all of us to search. You're the one that said our time is better spent going down there ourselves."

"Tali has a point," Mordin said. "Need to get moving."

"Bachjret Ward it is, then," the Doctor said, as the three of them exited the C-Sec outpost.

—

There was definitely a pattern to the Wards, the Doctor thought, even if the beings moving about here were, generally speaking, of different species than the ones in Zakera. But there was the same bustle and hubbub of business taking place, whether it was monetary or personal.

"Split up, take different stores," Mordin said. "Communicate results via omni-tool. Text better. Less obtrusive. Need to avoid attracting wrong kind of attention." He lifted the omni-tool and set up the three-way link, making Tali and the Doctor's omni-tools beep.

"Hope not to take too long," Mordin added before nodding and disappearing into the crowd. Tali headed off in the opposite direction, and the Doctor went down a third row so that he wouldn't overlap with their efforts. After finding nothing at the first store, the Doctor looked at his omni-tool to see that both Tali and Mordin hadn't had any luck either. He moved on, as he assumed the others were doing. Two stores later, he got his first break.

The asari minding the counter hesitated a bit too long when asked if she'd seen a young salarian recently, and the Doctor pressed his advantage. "I'm not trying to get her into trouble," he said soothingly. "Her family's very worried about her. I'm just trying to make sure she's safe. Is she here?"

The asari hesitated, then shook her head. "No. I couldn't afford to take her off the books like she wanted. I gave her another store to try. One that wouldn't care as much."

"Risky," the Doctor noted in an undertone.

"I … should've tried harder to help her," the asari said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I couldn't believe she'd gotten this far without running into the wrong people."

"Where?" the Doctor pressed.

"Hairin Computing," the asari replied. "Two doors over."

"Thank you," the Doctor said, and turned to leave, sending a message on his omni-tool as he did so to let the others know the lead he'd found. He could only hope that Hairin was still the place to find her.

—

Laran was beginning to regret the decision to run away from home.

She couldn't remember how many different computer stores she'd tried in Bachjret Ward before finding Hairin Computing. For a little while, she'd thought that it would all work out, that she'd get to live the life she dreamed of, away from constricting mothers and dalatrasses. The only part she felt truly bad about was the trouble she'd gotten her father into. He was the one who had helped her realize what she wanted to do, and she'd manipulated him like the politician she wanted to avoid being.

But all of that was almost meaningless, now, as she sat in a small room in a warehouse with other "merchandise". She couldn't believe this was happening on the Citadel, of all places! It was supposed to be the best place that all the races built together, a place where anyone could go and find where they were supposed to belong.

Instead, she had believed that the asari at Hairin were really interested in hiring her. She had been positively gleeful at the possibility of doing something on her own. She hadn't even noticed that she was being locked in a room with only one exit until the lock engaged.

At that point, Laran had known she was really in trouble, and she had screamed and banged at the door to no avail. She hadn't been left alone for too long before they'd taken her to the warehouse. Having gone to so much trouble to get away from home, she now wanted to go back, more than she'd ever wanted anything in her almost three years of life.

—

The Doctor stormed out of Hairin Computing to find Tali and Mordin waiting for him there. His face was so hard it could have been chiseled from granite. "They took her to a warehouse in lower Bachjret," he said. "To be sold."

Mordin's pistol was out almost before the Doctor knew what had happened, and the Doctor had to move quickly to prevent the salarian from going inside and dealing with the asari there. "This is where we call C-Sec," the Doctor said quietly. "Let them be arrested and possibly give up others that they've worked with."

Mordin's eyes narrowed, but he nodded and put the gun away. Tali brought up her omni-tool as they moved, making the call. "I used a scrambler to make it anonymous," she said. "So they won't come asking too many questions later. Hopefully they'll just take the gift."

"Suspect they will," Mordin said, moving faster and forcing the other two to keep up with him. "Will drop a word with Valern later, if need be."

They took an elevator down from the commercial district to the storage district. None of them spoke during the ride, Tali leaning back against the edge and tapping at her omni-tool, Mordin constantly staring at the floor indicator, and the Doctor pacing back and forth between them.

The door opened. Everyone inside - Laran included - shied away, wanting to avoid being hit for anything that looked even remotely like an escape.

"It's okay," a voice said. A human voice. Laran had only seen asari to this point. "We're going to get you out of here. We're friends. We're here to help you."

Laran looked up to see an older salarian by the human's side, and her eyes widened. She didn't recognize him. She didn't know if she should be afraid of him, or not. He walked towards her, and she noticed that he was missing one horn.

"Laran?" he asked.

"How do you know my name?" she squeaked out, too surprised to remember to keep silent.

He smiled at her. "Your father Garid begged us to find you. Very worried. Blames himself."

Laran hadn't mentioned her father's name to anyone. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Mordin Solus. Special Tasks Group," he said, and smiled at her.

That undid her completely, and she leapt into his arms. "Taking you home, now," he assured her, and she believed him.

—

A/N: Obviously, I took some liberties with Bachjret Ward, since we don't get that much detail on it.