Hannah looked at the time on her omni-tool, it read 1800; she took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and then rolled her shoulders feeling the tension lessen. The conference was long but went relatively well with lots of heated arguments but no physical violence. Mr. Wilkinson got into the face of one of the Turian diplomats; a pretty ballsy move for someone a foot shorter, but the Turian remained calm. Ambassador Goyle kept everyone in line and Hannah was extremely grateful.
She and Captain Marshall were able to get everyone back and situated at the hotel for the night, so Hannah went back to her room. She assumed Marissa would be there since she hadn't seen her anywhere at the Embassies. She hoped her daughter and the little Turian girl had gotten along well enough. Marissa made friends pretty easily with humans, but Hannah didn't know if it would be the same with aliens.
She opened the door to her hotel room to find it empty, too quiet. Hannah sat down on the bed, reviewed the day's events, and wrote her report to Captain Marshall. After sending the report, she checked her messages. It was late and she hadn't heard from Marissa at all. Hannah didn't call Marissa right away; she was going to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was probably having fun and lost track of time. But, Hannah found herself checking her omni-tool every ten minutes.
An hour later and Marissa still wasn't back; Hannah's anxiety was high. She tried to raise the girl on her omni-tool, but received no answer. No call, no email, no communication whatsoever. That was unlike Marissa. Hannah walked down the hallway to Captain Marshall's room. She hesitated. She didn't know if it would be a good idea to tell him what was going on, but she knew if she didn't it would mean more trouble later. She knocked on the metal door and a few moments later it opened.
"Sorry to bother you this late at night sir, but I haven't seen Marissa since this morning. I'm sure she just lost track of time."
"Hmm, okay," mumbled Marshall.
"She was with a little Turian girl and I need to contact her mother, Plautia. Maybe they're with her. I need her contact information?" said Hannah.
Captain Marshall looked like he had been asleep so guilt swam in Hannah's gut. He rubbed his eyes then shook his head, to clear the fog.
"We can go down to the lobby and have the receptionist contact the Administrative Assistant at the Embassies; she should have all the contact information there."
"Thank you for the information, but I can take care of it." Hannah hesitated for a moment. "Umm… can you hold off on writing any report on this, sir? I'm sure this is no big deal and I really don't want the Admirals judging my parenting skills unless absolutely necessary." Hannah gave him the best professional puppy dog eyes she could muster, hopeful he would wait.
Captain Marshall happened to be a sucker for those puppy dog eyes. "I'll wait."
"Thank you! Sorry to bother you again. Have a good night, sir," Hannah said while hurriedly walking toward the elevator. She really didn't want to inconvenience him anymore than she already had.
In the lobby the receptionist contacted the Embassy, who connected Hannah to Plautia.
"Ms. Torquatus, I'm really sorry to bother you, but this is Hannah Shepard. We put our two daughters together this morning. My daughter hasn't returned to our hotel yet and I was wondering if she was with you?"
"Spirits!" swore the Turian woman. "No, my daughter isn't back yet either. Kalea knows better than to stay out all night. I knew I shouldn't have trusted my daughter with a juvenile human… troublemaker."
"Excuse me?!" Hannah was shocked, her tone sharp. "My daughter isn't a troublemaker! You and I made a choice to leave them together. Now… stow the blame. We need to find them."
Hannah understood that Turian culture and expectations were honorable and uptight, but to insult her daughter for no good reason was rude.
Hannah stuck her tongue out at her omni-tool; good thing it was strictly an audio call. Hannah knew she was acting juvenile at the moment, but oh well.
"Fine! Meet me at C-Sec Academy right away. I have a few connections we could possibly utilize." A high pitch irritation grated in Plautia's subharmonics.
"Fine! I'll meet you in the Atrium. Hannah closed the link and did a mental check of her gear. No need to go back to her room. "Damn it, Mare. I told you not to get into trouble," thought Hannah as she exited the hotel.
This early in the morning, the C-Sec Academy Atrium was quiet. The women walked over to the information desk and Plautia spoke with the attendant.
"We are here to report two missing children. I'm Plautia Torquatus with Turian Diplomatic Relations and this human is Hannah Shepard with the Systems Alliance. We need assistance finding our daughters."
"How long have they been missing, ma'am?
"We haven't seen them since yesterday morning, 0900," replied Plautia.
The attendant nodded, "Please make your way up to the waiting room at the top of the stairs and to the right. I will send a message for a detective to meet you there."
"Thank you," said Plautia. Hannah echoed.
Hannah and Plautia waited for twenty minutes before they were greeted by a human C-Sec officer. He was average height, thin, with black hair and brown eyes and wore a blue and black uniform.
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting. Please follow me," he said.
The women were led to a large office area. Datapads were stacked on desks, terminals were running, and a few people either sat or walked around.
"Please have a seat," he gestured to the chairs. "My name is Detective Yuen. I've been assigned to help you find your daughters. Please tell me what happened."
Hannah spoke first about her assignment on the Citadel and the last time she saw her daughter, then Plautia elaborated on her assignment and daughter.
"In regard to missing children, we have a standard procedure of issuing alerts across the entire Citadel using the Avina platform, advertisement boards, news scrolls, and radio stations; we also review vids to see if we can track their movements. I will need a clear image of both girls."
Plautia provided an image of Kalea that was immaculate, but all Hannah had on her omni-tool at the moment was the photo they took in the department store. You could see her face clearly so it would have to work. When Plautia saw the image, Hannah felt, more than heard, a bass vibration. Was she laughing? Hannah took a deep breath and pushed down the anger that was threatening to boil up.
"Thank you. It will take some time to get these up and running. I understand both of you are anxious to begin and I'm aware of your governmental connections, so this is a priority case, but I'm gonna need you ladies to go back to your hotels and we will contact you as soon as we need you or hear something."
"Are you going to send out search units?" Plautia asked.
"Yes ma'am, as soon as we can get units organized. I called my partner and several other officers and they'll be arriving shortly. We'll send out as many two-person units as possible across the Presidium and Wards. We'll also have techs on hand reviewing security footage. You know this is a big place, so I ask for your patience. We do know what we are doing."
"I bet human children get lost all the time," said Plautia.
Again?! Hannah couldn't understand why on Earth this Turian was so judgmental about humans. She had some sort of pole up you know where. Gee whiz!
Respectfully, Detective Yuen said, "Children of all species can get lost; we work very hard to find them."
"Thank you," said Hannah. "We'll be at the Embassy later this morning, but please let us know when you find something. I do plan on speaking with my Captain about joining your search as soon as possible," Hannah spoke coolly.
Detective Yuen gave her a calculating look. "I understand. Here is my contact information. Please let me know when you return."
Hannah nodded.
Her exterior demeanor was calm but her inner mother was angry: angry at Plautia for being so high and mighty, angry at Marissa for getting lost, angry at the thought of someone hurting her baby girl, and angry that she couldn't do anything about it right now. She felt helpless and Hannah never liked feeling that way. It reminded her of when she was younger, feeling like a victim, and all of that reminded her that George wasn't around to help or comfort her. She wasn't going to lose her daughter, not today, not ever!
When Hannah was back at the hotel, she stopped by Captain Marshall's door and pressed the intercom. Captain Marshall opened the door and held Hannah's eyes.
"I take it you haven't been able to find Marissa?" asked the Captain.
"No, sir. C-Sec and their detectives are on it, but I don't feel like it's enough. I'm afraid something bad has happened to her and there is nothing I can do about it."
Captain Marshall took a step forward, held up his arms, and offered Hannah a hug; she accepted.
Ever since George had died, Hannah felt lost and abandoned, holding strong for her daughter. She missed his warm embrace. But right now, in this moment, in this embrace, she felt supported and encouraged.
"If they don't find the girls by this evening, I will cover your duties so you can help search." Captain Marshall rubbed Hannah's back as he spoke. "Marissa is a bright and resourceful kid, I'm sure she's fine. And, don't worry, I'll hold off on that report until it's absolutely necessary to write." Hannah understood that if he had to write that report it meant they couldn't find Marissa. She sighed.
"Thank you for helping me and I'm sorry I messed this up. I really thought she would be fine, and this was her chance to see galactic culture for the first time. So much for special requests in the future, huh?" said Hannah with flat humor.
"I won't hold this against you Hannah, just make sure you find Marissa so we can all go home after this settlement is over," said Captain Marshall.
"I will and thank you again."
Hannah went back to her room and lay down. In a few hours she would need to get ready for the summit, but she was not in the mood to deal with diplomats. What an adventure, indeed!