Don't Come Down// Klance

The Kerberos Mission

A Couple Months Previously

"Isn't this exciting Shiro? We could be the first people to discover life on other planets!" Matt says excitedly as he pulls the ice core out of the drill machine. 

"Careful Matt, it's delicate." His father cautions him as Shiro laughs.

"You two get more excited over this science stuff than I do." He says with a small smile.

"But just think of the possibilities Takashi!" Matt said, jumping up with the ice sample in hand, stressing his father out as he began to wave it around. "If we find life here, then that means there could be other planets out there that also have life. Whole species! Isn't that incredible."

"Yeah it is but why don't you stop swinging that thing around before you give your father a heart attack." Matt looked over at his dad sheepishly who was a little red in the face.

"Sorry dad." Matt said with a laugh.

"Why don't we head back to the ship you two. I think we've collected enough samples for today." Matt and Shiro nodded and after packing up their equipment, they headed back to their spacecraft.

----------

Shiro wandered towards Matt's room, a mug of tea in his hands. He was more of a coffee kind of guy but apparently someone had forgotten that and had only given the crew Matt and Sam's favorite brand of tea. that was fine though, Shiro had actually grown to love the taste of it. When Shiro walked into Matt's room, he was sitting at his desk crosslegged, his computer in front of him. His room glowed green from the string of numbers and letters flashing across the screen and Shiro turned on the bedroom light, causing Matt to turn around.

"You know, just because the Garrison fixed your eyes once doesn't mean you should destroy them again by sitting in the dark in front of a computer." Matt laughed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to open my computer but I saw that I had an awaiting message." His eyes shone with mischief and Shiro sighed a little.

"What do you mean? Who are you talking to?" Shiro asked, leaning over the back of Matt's chair as he watched his friend type away furiously. It didn't really look like Matt was typing out any message he could understand.

"I'm talking to my sister, in code of course. She misses us a lot." Shiro rolled his eyes and took a sip of his tea. Of course Katie Holt could talk in code, she was a Holt after all and every Holt that Shiro had encountered was a different form of genius in their own right.

"Wouldn't the Garrison be pissed at you for talking to her?" Shiro asked, wondering what Matt was typing out so quickly. His fingers flew across the keyboard faster that Shiro could ever type, he had always failed those typing tests back in grade school. Adam always joked it was the one thing he was horrible at.

"Yeah but they won't be able to understand what we're saying." Matt said turning in his chair to look at Shiro as he held up a book. "Dad and I created this code a while back using this book and a series of additions and subtractions that only my dad and I, and now Katie, knew about. The Garrison could intercept the message but they wouldn't know what we're saying." Shiro grinned, always surprised by the genius of the Holt Family.

"Alright, so what is she saying?" Shiro asked as another message popped up on screen from Katie. Matt turned back to the screen and quickly read over the code. Before gasping and jumping out of his seat.

"Dad! Dad come quick!" Matt shouted at the top of his lungs. Shiro gave him a funny look. Matt didn't look distraught or worried, he looked elated. Katie must have given him some happy news. Far away, in a different part of the ship, Sam Holt heard his sons yell and jumped, startled.