[Citadel, Zakera] A much needed family outing (open)

It had been quite some time since Vohkaidin Knox had set foot on the Citadel. For the most part, he truly enjoyed it, as the he'd lived the majority of his years as a free man. He only wished he'd never seen it those horrible days of imprisonment, the ward arms closed, and the absolute certainty that he'd die in the tomb the Reaper's had made for them. Even now, he remembered the crimson light of the ward arms, as monsters ambled about, maws wet with-

"Dada?"

The little voice is enough to banish the waking nightmare from his thoughts, and Vohkaidin looked down to see the soft and concerned face of his daughter, her soft features scrunched up with concern. Delia, two months short of her second birthday, reached high, quietly asking to be picked up. Vohhk smiled and placed his firstborn child on his muscled shoulders, one of her favorite perches on her father's back.

"Are you having fun, sweetheart?"

"Yah. It's pretty, Dada."

Indeed it was, both the nice park they were relaxing in, and the site of the always beautiful ward arms. With the specters of the past banished away, the cultural heart of the galaxy shined luminously, more lovely, in his opinion, with Sol's rays gracing it than it had ever been in the obscuring violet clouds of the Serpent Nebula.

Helena was nearby, quietly talking on her communicator, likely something to do with the documentary.

Sigh. Part of the reason we're hiding up here.

"Hiding" was a bit of an exaggeration, but Vohk was happy for the moment to spend with is family, and a weekend on his old home would do, so long as they stayed far and away from places that brought out the worst memories. Such thoughts left him, as his daughter's pudgy fingers began to play with his hair.

"Ow. Ow. Ow! Okay, down you go."
Vohk grumbled with good nature, removing his offspring's grabby hands from the possibility of tearing out his his scalp. Already sidetracked, Delia scampered away, briefly allowing Vohkaidin a moment to breath, as he took in the lovely park, his wife and daughter, and any faces, familiar or otherwise, who were enjoying their weekend.

Helena, meanwhile, was busy chatting on her com. To any possible observer, she was plainly frustrated

"I'm telling you Charlie, I really think its worth investigating. Just give me another month and-"

"I've been giving you several months, Muck, and you have all the footage to air the documentary. Finish cutting up the footage so we can get it ready for full publication."

"Come on, Charlie, there's a real possibility of something more than just some dumbass screwing up here. I really think we might have a bad apple in in the Alliance."

"Based on what evidence? All you have is supposition that can be explained the official story.'

"I know, which is why I need more time to investigate. Airing the footage we have, publication, etc, is going to be time wasted while this guy buries his tracks."

"If there are even any tracks to bury. Helena, you know how much effort it took me to get let a simple documentary directed by you broadcasted by the FCC, you really think they'd let you go after another conspiracy, given what happened last time?"

Helena ground her teeth for a moment, before enunciating clearly.

"That all turned out to be true, Charlie. I had several sources, more than enough to go forward."

"Yes, but you did so without our go ahead. You need to take the time to earn back trust Helena, otherwise you'll never get anything accomplished. I'm sorry, but either get that footage cut, or we're through."

The com cut off, and Helena was silent for a moment, before muttering "Fuck." She stewed in frustration for a moment, before heading back to her family.

Vohk's ears pricked at Helena's curse, and he briefly stopped keeping an eye on Delia as she rolled about on the park grass, to meet his wife's gaze with mild disapproval.

"Not around Del, hun, you never know what she'll pick up."

He chided, before taking a moment to study her further. "So, I'm guessing Mercer didn't give you the go ahead.?"

He guessed, knowing his wife well enough to guess what she might have been talking about and with whom. He wasn't happy that she'd brought work in their brief vacation away from home, but knew that she'd had a scent on whatever really happened at Scranton. Hell, he'd guessed something was really off about the whole thing before her.

"You know going after Alliance officers isn't going to do much for my career, yes?" He pointed out wryly, the understatement palpable.

Helena has the decency to look chagrined, flashing an embarrassed look in their daughter's direction, but Delia seems far more fascinated to roll about in some dandelions. How the weeds made their way here from Earth, its doubtful they'll ever know.

"Sorry. I was really hoping Charlie would give me the time to dig to see if there was a story here. Maybe I should have known better."

Muck grumbled, before sitting heavily beside her husband on the park bench. She sighed deeply when he pointed out how unpopular their own little investigation would make them.

"I know, you're absolutely right. Its just hard for me to let go, sometimes, even when I all I know I'm doing is stirring stuff up. Just.. you could have been there, and the KR guys hadn't run, a lot of people could have died. Even so, people did, when they didn't have to. Someone needs to make sure it was just a stupid accident, otherwise it could happen again."

Helena explained, once more the eager young journalist, ready to go delving into the truth, no matter the risk to herself. Problem was, she was older, and knew well the consequences of going into dark places without concern of the consequences for what she might unearth.

Crawling around the area near the family (but mostly out of sight) was a little black and white fuzzy, insectoid creature wearing a harness and leash. There was no owner in sight. The choriick having apparently lost her owner for the time being. But its natural curiosity was drawing it more and more closer to the young family.

Vohkaidin pulled his wife close, having her head in the crook of his shoulder, his arm (the real one, the replacement not something he liked to touch people with, if he could avoid it.) wrapped around her side.

"Hey, don't stress out about it. For one thing, I'm sure we're not the only people to look at what happened at Scranton, and get suspicious. I'm sure the Alliance has someone investigating, if only to make sure they don't have any repeats of what happened. Things will turn out ok."

He promised before gifting her a quiet kiss on the cheek. He pulled back with a soft smile.

"We don't always have to rush off and save the world."

He whispered, before a delighted squeal demanded his attention, and Vohk looked up to se Delia eagerly clapping her hands at some soft, fuzzy looking thing. He couldn't quite make out what it was, but it was definetly alive. He was already moving out of the bench.

"Find yourself a puppy, Del?"

"Naw, Daddy! Crawly!"

Crawly? What's ah. Oh.

Vohk knelt beside his daughter, keeping his hands close to her, in the event he needed to snatch her up quickly.

"I think that's a Chorlick, honey."

Vohk stated, recognizing it from somewhere. Domesticated, certainly, if that leash was any indication. He glanced around the park, for any signs of its owner.

This looked like the place. Sarah stepped down the path, pushing a stroller containing a sleeping infant. The woman took a seat on a park bench across from Vohk and did her best to act inconspicuous- Bright and large sunglasses protecting her from the glare of the sun illuminating the area and also concealing bloodshot, tired eyes.

The woman reached into a satchel hanging off of her shoulder and twisted free the cap of a sports drink. She took a long drink and then turned her attention to the baby. "I can't believe you're asleep. First trip to the park and you're asleep. You're not setting a good precedent here." She shook her head with disapproval and tucked the baby in with his blanket- And then returned to her drink.

She stared across the walkway at Vohk, then over at Muck. "Hey! It's you guys. Fancy that! What an odd coincidence that in no way, shape or form was telegraphed by the message Helena sent me! "

Helena blinked for a moment, as her moment of basking in her husband's affection vanished, as he rapidly made his way to Delia. Helena followed after a moment, comprehension and concern overriding all else.

Before she could say or do much else, a familiar sight garnered her attention. "Sarah! You came!"

She exclaimed delightedly, before embracing her friend warmly. Glancing to make sure Vohk had Delia under control, some fuzzy looking puppy thing in the long grass, Muck felt safe enough to devote her attention to Sarah and...

"That's not who I think it is, is it?"

Helena whispered, crouching down to peer into the stroller, and examine the little passenger. "Oh my God, Sarah, he's beautiful. What's his name?"

She asked, warmly taking in the tiny infant for the first time.

Meanwhile down the paved walkway, some distance from the Knoxes and Thompsons, walked a geth with a small group of people hanging around with it, taking notes.

"In our observations, the weakly interacting massive particles you've labeled as paons gave off a strong signal in the 335 Giga-electron volt range, enabling us to link it with the reactions surrounding black hole accretion disks. Based on this, the Consensus speculates that dark matter annihilation in black holes is significant contributor in enabling evaporation of black holes."

"Okay, but how come our telescopes haven't yet noticed this? You'd think it was easy to pick off such a strong signal like you described."

"The Consensus identified a medium-sized black hole in the Perseus Veil cluster, permitting close observation of the phenomenon. Nearby Terminus states' universities might have also observed it due to their proximity. In addition, I speculate that the presumed state of hostility between the Consensus and organic species has prevented any determined efforts to monitor astronomical phenomena in the Perseus Veil."

"Well good thing you're sharing this with us now! Do you have a lot of other discoveries in store at Rannoch?"

"Cross-reference of Consensus and Citadel research institutions' records is required before I can make any statements of sufficient validity regarding this matter."

It seems Flash of Light had an entourage of university students of all species with it.

"I named him after two people that helped me have the life I have today. Albert Lowell and Viros Fenon." She looked at her son, the tiny blonde infant stirring away from his sleep to take in the world around him. "He apparently didn't think the nap time I'd allotted on his schedule was enough. I- It's safe for him to be in the park, right? He's about a month and a half."

She crossed her arms and looked up at her friend, before taking another swig of her drink. "I don't know how you two make it so easy looking, I mostly just wing it."

The child's hand wrapped around her wrist Preeya was almost dragged through the park area.
She had difficulties to keep up with him: Even though he was much smaller than her, her stiff knee joint made it tricky for her to run as fast as him.

"We're almost there!" He called out enthusiastically and pointed at some green areas.

"Yes... I... See that!" Preeya hesitantly answered trying her best to appear as easy-going and cute as possible.

Over the last days many people had given her various advices about how to deal with children, but right now she felt rather awkward and helpless.
Even more so: Today had been probably one of the (personally) worst days since she set a foot on the citadel - Both battles included....
Haunted by worries about delays within her photosphere-project and four of her fellow students having to leave the project for various reasons, for the first time she seriously feared that it might come to an end before empirical work itself even started.
Already far behind schedule she assumed the project might not survive another semester before the financial support was entirely cut...
"...Fook..." She whispered, forcing herself to focus on her environment again.

This was not just a new place for the boy, but also new to Preeya herself.
She usually avoided places like these for reasons she did not entirely understand (or even think about yet) herself.
"Well then, Hedin..." She began and hesitantly patted the young Turian's head. "...I promised we'd play something. I'm just not sure what... Do you have any... Suggestions?"

After running two circles around her he eventually stopped and looked up to her.
"Don't Quarians play games?"

Invisibly under her helmet Preeya was raising an eyebrow. The only games she remembered from her own childhood had been video games, but she already promised Hedin's father to keep that sort of entertainment at a minimum...
"...I'm not familiar with games in general. I am sorry." She answered, taking a look around.
Some other families enjoyed this place as well, but none of them appeared to play any games suitable to Hedin's age group.

"What about hide and seek?!" He finally asked, gently pulling Preeya's wrist. "Do you know that?"

Preeya thoughtfully swallowed. She remembered the rules - Since they were basically the same in all known societies.
"Yes, that works. We can do that as long as you promise to stay within this park, while hiding, alright?"
He eagerly nodded, then started to run, while Preeya began counting.

"You need to count out loud!" He called towards her, completely distracting her and forcing her to start over again.

"What? Well. Yes! Alright!
1... 2... 3... 4... 5..."

The boy started running in search of a neat place to hide while Preeya stood in the middle of a little footway, shyly waving at another child that seemed to stare at her for some seconds.

For a moment she felt as if all those strangers were looking at her.
...All those strangers with children and very probably far more experience than her...
For this little moment she felt as if they were about to judge her for being awkward in dealing with Hedin...

"11... 12... 13... 14... 15... 16..."
16. That had been the number of members on the photosphere-project before many people hopped off... Even though not being responsible for this, it made Preeya feel like a loser...

"24... 25... 26... 27... 28... 29... 30... I'm coming!" She called, deciding to do her best to put her worries aside. At least for now.

If Vohkaidan had been paying attention to the edge of the park, he might have noticed that a turian man, some distance away, seemed to be taking a real, genuine interest in him. Omnitool glowing brightly on an outstretched arm, the turian appeared to be staring at Vohkaidan in particular, only breaking the gaze to look at something he had open on his 'tool.

At this distance, Titus couldn't hear the conversations between Vohkaidan and his daughter, or Helena and Sarah, but it was clear to see that they were all excited in some way. If Vohkaidan happened to look up and spot Titus, he would be able to make out the Heirarchy service uniform (complete with pistol and cap), but the rank insignia (that of a turian major) and the clan markings on his face would most likely be indistinct over the distance. It wouldn't be hard, however, to spot his bright yellow eyes gazing puzzedly at the human.

Uncertainly, Titus lowered his 'tool and slowly walked towards the group of humans.

"Hello Albert, you little cutie patootie" Helena greeted with a sad smile to little blonde haired bundle. A moment later, she returned her gaze to Sarah.

"Well, unless he's sick, he should be fine for a nice little excursion like this, and he has his mother with him." I wouldn't worry."

Helena stared at Sarah for a moment, before her face crinkled into a quick burst of laughter.

"Easy? Hah! Honey, it's never easy. It's terrifying in all the worst and best possible ways. But we have each other, and the best family of a support system I can get."

Muck peered at Sarah for a moment, before realization caught on to her. "Where's Chris?"

She asked, cautiously.

Sarah stared at Helena and spoke rather flatly. "Probably off trying to wring custody from me, why?" She set her drink in a cupholder on the push-carriage, fastening the plastic cap to the mouth of the bottle. "Last time I spoke with her, we used far too many grown-up words for me to say in front of Albie and your daughter." She clasped unringed fingers together and rested her hands on her knee- After crossing said knee over her leg.

"Incoming turian."

Vohk, had, by this time, picked up Delia, and was holding the Chorlick's leash with his left hand.

"Our shorlick, Dada?" Delia asked innocently, her pronunciation a little off, gazing at the fuzzy arthropod with an all encompassing interest. Vohk shook his head immediately.

"No Honey, it's not ours. It must have gotten away from it's owner."

He said, whilst looking over to see if he could find any visible ID. He could hear Helena talking with someone, but the brief glance he sent her way revealed only a the outline of a woman beside a stroller. He'd introduce himself in a minute.

Delia, in the meantime, pouted. "I wan it." She proclaimed, attempting get loose to in order to capture the fuzzy little thing. Her father's toned arms did not yield.

"Sorry honey, that would be bad if we didn't try to find the owner. Come on, lets see if we can figure out who it belongs to."

Vohkaidin gave the park once over. To his surprise, the previously quiet little park had garnered some activity. A geth, the first he'd ever seen in person, was being followed by an entourage comprised of several different species. Interesting as the sight was, he doubted the animal belonged to any of them, judging by how they were carrying on their enthusiastic conversation. Vohk dismissed them, and continued his visual search.

Another rare sight, a female quarian in red, seemed like a more plausible candidate, as she was clearly looking for something. He might have begun to approach her, if it had not been the turian making his way in their direction. Vohk's eyes widened slightly, recognizing the military uniform, if not the exact rank...and the gun on his hip.

Cautiously, Vohk put his daughter down, and whispered for her to go over to where mommy was. The little girl, too you to understand the change in her father's tone, continued to reach out for the chorlick. Vohk, changing strategy, gave his daughter the leash, and asked her to go show mommy the animal. This, Delia comprehended with no problems, and proceeded to pull the hapless little chorlick to Muck and Sarah, eagerly shrieking "Mommy, Mommy! Look, Look!"

Vohk, in the meantime, made his way to face the turian directly, the bright yellow eyes striking a chord in his memory. Where had he seen them before....?

Plika tilted her head to the side as it inspected Delia and Vohkaiden, letting out tiny little chirrups as it did so. This changed when the child started dragging it. It did not like that. At all. Letting out several alarmed chirps as it was dragged to Helena, clearly regretting its choice in wandering away from her owner.

***

Meanwhile, a rather tall quarian was walking towards the gathering, calling out for her lost pet.

"Plika!"

Kari sighed. She looked away for one minute and the choriick had wandered off. She wasn't too worried however. Plika never strayed far from her.

Slowly walking around the area Preeya tried to figure out where Hedin probably might have went by remembering the last direction from which she had been able to hear his voice before.
...But then again, he was smart. He would not simply run into one direction like that. Only uninspired adults would act like that...

Slowly turning on her own axis she saw a human man who appeared to walk towards her. Stopping for some seconds she gave him a curious look until the man changed his direction again.
Apparently it was not her he was looking for, but a turian man who went towards him and his companions...

Trying to concentrate on her game of hide and seek again suddenly Preeya heard something from behind her which theoretically might have been footsteps.
As silent (but fast) as possible she hobbling headed towards the noise taking (sparse) cover behind one of the trees...

As Titus walked, still with a puzzled expression, his arm brushed against the holster on his hip. Suddenly, he remembered he was wearing his uniform. More importantly, a uniform complete with a pistol. Realisibg that he must have looked threatening or hostile, he raised his claw up to rub his face casually, trying to appear non-chalant. As he closed the distance, he consciously kept his arm away from his side-arm.

When he arrived, he stopped a few paces short of the bigger man.
"Excuse me. Are you Vo-..." He hesitated for a moment, unsure of himself, but continued eventually, "Vohkaidan Knox?"

After another moment, the turian added, "do you know who I am?"

Vohkaidan Knox and Titus Scapula weren't anything more than acquaintances. That, however, didn't change the fact that Vohkaidan had saved Titus' life and the life of his sister during the Reaper occupation of the Citadel, nor the fact that they had spent a few months together, along with Helena and others, on Thessia earlier that year due to a peacekeeping mission they had both been a part of.

After Titus had spotted Vohkaidan as he was walking through the park to go and get some food, he figured it would be rude to not say hello. Over the distance though, Titus didn't even know if it was Vohkaidan or not, hence the hesitation. He had seen on CDN that Helena and Vohk had been on Earth since the war, and even watched some of the documentary the two produced. That had been why he had stopped to check if it was Vohkaidan; the cybernetic implant that Vohk had gained due to a wound that Titus had witnessed on the footage.

A young human man was entering the park area. He was wearing a black and red suit styled like the ones most scientists and technicians used to wear. On the sleeves were the emblems of the martian port authority, his employer. His hair was short and dark, his features looked a bit older than the 22 years he was.

So, this was the Citadel, Richard Hall thought, looking around. He had been on the station only briefly before, in the transit area of the space line that had delivered him to Mars. He had spent all his life on earth, most of that time the Citadel had been a mysterious place far away in a nebula, until… yeah, until hell broke loose and all of a sudden the earth was the center of all the shit that could come down possibly.

Having made his way through it he had finally came to rest in Port Lowell on the red planet, but his boss had selected him for a couple of seminars on cybernetics and mech maintenance. That had brought him here to the Citadel for a couple of days and since the day’s lessons had been over he wanted to use the time to wander around the neighborhood of his hotel.

The park was populated by some people with kids and some individuals, mostly aliens. There was a tall quarian woman in her amazingly snug suit, looking for something. He had heard they were looking for salvage everywhere so maybe she was collecting…

A turian boy ran past him, startling Richard and hid behind a tree! He was about to say something but the boy made the universal sign to be quiet and Richard winked. He looked but could not see the boy’s playmates.

He had not much experience with aliens but the boy did not make him feel awkward at least. There was another quarian woman in red coming closer, obviously looking for something. Man, there must be lots of salvageable stuff around this park, he thought.

The poor woman was limping, she probably needed help. "Ahem... ma'am, can I help you maybe?"

OhMyGodOhMyGod, what was he doing? His heartbeat picked up a notch over the stupidity of just addressing a totally random alien woman.

Hedin wasn't able to believe this.
Either she was darn good or simply lucky.
Looking down from the tree Hedin had climbed up believing this to be the perfect hiding place he already saw Preeya standing next to it and remaining silent for some seconds.
She was still searching for him. But it would just be a matter of seconds until she would curiously look around again in the manner she always did when not running or speaking to someone.

Luckily something else caught her attention: The human man Hedin almost ran into about a minute ago...

Don't tell her! Don't tell her... He thought by himself while using this moment's advantage of Preeya's inattention to quickly climb down the tree and search for a new hiding place - Which was a perfectly legitimate tactic amongst the children on the Citadel.

Running as fast as he could without making noise he eagerly took cover behind some thin bushes until he found his next perfect hiding place: He ran towards some adults busily chatting about incomprehensible "Preeya-stuff" and squeezed himself into the center of the group. Since all of them were taller than him, nobody would spot him from outside...

__________________


Focusing on the noises around her Preeya still was busy tracking Hedin when a voice from behind distracted her.
Turning towards it within a split second she found herself staring at another human male.

Confused staring at him, as if he was some sort of an obscure stellar anomaly it took her another second to finally squeeze out an answer.
"...With what?!" She asked choppily and slightly insecure, cleared her throat and finally did a hailing nod towards him.

Basically she neither was able to tell what exactly he wanted from her, nor did she have any talent to start promising small talk, which was the reason she needed another couple of seconds to finally continue speaking.
The probably least confusing thing she was able to come up with towards a stranger offering help within this short time:
"...If you like to you can ask Hedin of you can join the game..."