Leave Those Kids Alone

Posted on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 1:33am by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Krysia Kaleri-Smith & Katya
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:24pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Paradise Station - Marketplace

A Mission Post by Katya & Lieutenant Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Krysia Kaleri
Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Paradise Station - Marketplace
Timeline:
Date: Fri Dec 28th, 2018 @ 1:47am

ON:

The glass cube ascended from the Security level with Lieutenant Kaleri and her two Security Officers en route for their search and rescue mission by Paradise's station chief, Katya. As the cube travelled, there was a short flicker and an image was projected against one of the cube's walls, showing a video of Katya in her office.

"Good hello, Lieutenant." The Anh'Iran woman smiled. "As promised, I am providing you with information on the two lost younglings." The screen changed to video stills of two urchin-like alien children, both wearing ragged clothing as they hid behind a large crate. The orange-skinned children appeared to be watching for something. They both look up and see the camera and freeze. "As you can see, they are afraid of being caught because they think they'll be in trouble. We just want to reunite them with their parents."

"Do you know who their parents are?" Krysia looked at the pictures memorizing their faces. "If one or both of them could join me it might help with earning the children's trust."

"We believe they were traders working in the region, we're trying to track them down." Katya said, the smile never leaving her face. "Their names are Bani and Miro. They had been hanging around the station for a little while, we're not quite sure when their parents left. We know they speak Federation standard, so it's possible they have travelled into Federation territory before and may be more trusting of a human face."

"Hopefully" Krysia nodded. "The main problem for me is the number of people here, it could be like searching for a proverbial 'needle in a haystack' but I'll do my best."

The Cube arrived on the Marketplace level. Unlike the sterile, white rooms of the Atrium, the Marketplace was a like a small urban city; covered in colourful lights, signs, and a long stretch of stalls that seemingly never ended. The area was also packed with people - traders shouting advertisements for their wares, shoppers walking around in every direction, goods of all kinds being transported on hover-trollies. It was a hive of activity, culture, and noise.

Krysia looked around wondering how exactly she was supposed to find two frightened children, especially as they didn't want to be found. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack with so many people around even with her senses. She sighed not even sure where to start looking.

Meanwhile, a man in a Starfleet uniform stepped out of another cube, looking around with a cool, dispassionate gaze. The crowd of shoppers and other passers-by gave no notice of the man, passing him off as a stranger, which suited the man just fine. He counted at least a dozen unknown species in less than a minute, ranging from a huge, bulbous orange-skinned individual to what could only be described as a rainbow-coloured octopus. Other humanoids walked the marketplace too, ignoring the lone human in the midst.

However, having a canny sense for customers, the vendors knew better than to try to advertise to the human or try to lure him to their stalls. There was something about the male human's ice-like eyes and merciless veneer that they wanted far, far away from their other customers, and so the human strolled through the marketplace unmolested.

Krysia stood looking around. What she had to do was start thinking like a lost, frightened child and think where she would go. oO I wonder if... Oo
She turned and started walking towards a quieter service area away from the hustle and bustle of all the people. It had everything that was needed for spying on the crowds.

"Ma'am, I really don't know if we can find these children without aid," one of Krysia's security guards said with a concerned tone. "This marketplace is very densely populated, and..." He paused as his colleague elbowed him subtly, and both Bajoran men stiffened automatically as they saw someone else in Starfleet uniform approaching from the crowd on the street.

"Lieutenant Kaleri," Cailus said in stern greeting as he got closer, glancing around the area. It was a small, nearly deserted area just off the main thoroughfare, with only a couple of replicators, a closed restaurant and a small medical station. Certainly nothing interesting. "Captain Temple sent me to check on your progress."

“What progress?” Krysia sighed. “There are so many minds on this station how am I supposed to get a hint on these missing children?!” She paused and looked apologetically at Cailus. “Sorry...it’s frustrating being asked to find a needle in a haystack.”

Cailus frowned. "They asked you to find missing children? With your telepathy?"

“My abilities were put to use interviewing a prisoner they have here. They wanted to know if he was telling the truth or not. The children appear to be innocent bystanders simply lost and afraid, but I won’t know for sure until I find them.” She looked at Cailus. “I haven’t sensed any deception so far but I want to talk to these children once they’re found, just to be sure.”

"Very well," Cailus replied, bemused but resigned. He glanced at Krysia's guards, who simply shrugged back at him. "How close do you have to be to the children to sense them?"

“Depends on the strength of emotion. I have an incling they were here not too long ago....” Her attention was drawn behind them. She motioned for Cailus and the guards to keep looking forward so she could try and get a quick glance.

There was a sudden shrill cry from an elderly woman, who had been carrying a series of parcels but had involuntarily thrown them into the air with fright. She seemed to curse some profanity as her parcels crashed to the floor. Further through the crowd, other shoppers began to gasp and move out the way, as if being surprised by the presence of something moving amongst them. They were equally shocked and disdained.

Krysia turned and looked as the commotion got louder. "It must be the children!"

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Cailus flicked a quick hand gesture at Krysia's guards before leading the way to the commotion, Krysia behind him, and her guards behind her. He slipped through the gaps in the crowd with deceptive ease, rushing towards the source of the scream in the thoroughfare.

Two of the silver-helmeted guards from Paradise had also spotted the commotion and began pointing aggressively at the source of the panic. "The younglings!" One could be heard to say. They immediately set off into the throngs of people, weapons drawn, as they tried to track down the children.

"Why do they have their weapons drawn?" She looked at Griffin concerned. "It's no wonder they're afraid, bring chased by guards brandishing weapons at them!"

Catching up with the guards Krysia looked across at them. "Put your weapons away...as long as you have your weapons drawn we won't stand a chance of getting anywhere near those children!" She turned her attention back to the children. “Wait! Please!! We’re not here to hurt you...we’re here to help you.”

She moved ahead of Griffin and her guards intermingling with the crowds before stopping and returning to Griffin. "This is pointless, these children know all the hiding places. We'll have to try again when it's a bit quieter, IF it's ever quieter!"

"That won't be necessary," Cailus said, looking around them through the crowd. A few shoppers shot the Starfleeters a glare for obstructing the path, but Cailus ignored them, frowning in concentration. The two police officers whom Krysia had admonished were also glaring daggers at the foreigners, their weapons holstered but their gloved hands still on them.

"We are here at Katya's request to find missing children, so there is no use arresting us," Cailus told the cops coldly, his deep voice cutting through the loud hubbub of the crowd. Glancing back at his own two security officers, he ordered, "Get to the cube lift and keep watch. If you see the children, do not engage. Contact us first."

As the two men nodded and promptly headed off, Cailus looked around their position again, eyeing the crowd, the stalls, the shops, the metal ceiling above their heads, although he didn't appear to be actually searching. If anything, it was as if he was concentrating, calculating something. After a long few moments, his frown deepened.

"Follow me, lieutenant," he said to Krysia as he set off through the crowd, slipping inbetween the mass of people with surprising grace and ease. Within minutes, it became clear that they were headed towards a quieter part of the station's markets, where there were fewer shops and the crowd thinned to a trickle. There were far fewer non-humanoids too, everyone in this part of the market having the familiar two hands, two legs and one head, just like Cailus and Krysia. Many of the species that they passed were unknown, but on occasion a familiar individual would pass by, often carrying a cloth bag full of shopping. Talarians, Breen, Ferengi, even the occasional species from Federation, from an elderly well-dressed Tellarite woman to a merry Betazoid man.

Finally, Cailus stopped in the thoroughfare. There was only a handful of people walking by, while the surrounding shops looked quiet. There were no stalls in this part of the markets, and the shops looked oddly specific. One appeared to be focused on children's toys, while another had beautiful sculptures in its windows. Save for the ceiling high above their heads, or that silver metal that the shops were built off that was identical to the rest of the station, Cailus and Krysia might have been on a planet rather than on a station in deep space.

"Can you sense them nearby, lieutenant?" the security chief asked her quietly as he looked around.

Krysia paused trying to focus in on the area around her and shut out the general mental noise of the station. "I think...." She followed a sense towards the toy shop. "There's a sense of....fear, coming from there." She pointed to the toy shop entrance. "You don't normally find afraid children in a toy shop."

Nodding in agreement, Cailus glanced around them before leading the way into the shop.

Walking inside Krysia smiled as she looked around given her small developing bump she made out she was looking at the baby toys rather than looking for the children. She followed her senses towards the desk motioning to Cailus that she thought the children were out back.

"Right," Cailus said under his breath, frowning. The shop's staff (a middle-aged man and woman, both evidently Talarian) were somewhat ease at first, smiling at their prospective customers as Cailus and Krysia looked around at the various toys on display. The smiles vanished, however, when they saw the phaser on Cailus' hip, replaced by apprehension. They didn't know that the weapon had been deactivated, and so they looked at each other with unease that only increased when they noticed the human male looking their way with cold assessment. When he started approaching, the woman clenched her fists on the checkout desk, plainly frightened of the intimidating alien and his pregnant companion.

"There's no need to be alarmed," Cailus reassured them with a tone that was oddly smooth and gentle. "We are searching for two missing children, and we wish you no harm. Have you seen them?" The blank looks in response were answer enough. "We would like to take a quick look in the back of your shop, if you would be so kind as to grant permission. We would also like to go to the alleyway behind your shop, please, between your back wall and the marketplace bulkhead. We have reason to believe that the missing children are hiding here."

The nab straightened, glaring at the uniformed alien, his eyes flicking down to the obvious weapon at his hip. "You will have no business here, sir, no indeed! I do not accept thieves lightly, nor do I allow weapons in a children's toy shop!" The tremble in his voice was obvious, but the shopkeeper rolled on. "I ask you to leave at once, sir, right this instant, or I shall call station security and have them arrest you! They are not tolerant of criminals here on Paradise station, not at all!"

The threat bounced off Cailus without leaving a dent in his stony expression. "Please do call station security," he answered mildly. "We are working with them in this matter, and you would be saving us the trouble. Kindly tell them that officers of the Federation ship Pandora have found the missing children. Thank you. Lieutenant Kaleri, with me, please."

Krysia nodded and followed Cailus, offering a somewhat more understanding and comforting smile to the shop owners. “We honestly don’t mean any harm” she smiled. “I may just be back later to buy something.”

With that, Cailus simply strode past the confused Talarians into the back of the shop, looking around swiftly before continuing on, opening the back door into the alleyway.

What the two came to, however, was seemingly a dead end. It was a small refuse yard, only a few metres square, where the shop owners would store goods or gain access to the disposal tunnel. The hatch on the tunnel had not been disturbed however, and yet the children had seemingly disappeared. It is possible they had scampered over the small fence that led into the next yard, but not a sound could be heard. They were used to hiding and had managed to once again evade capture.

OFF