Blood and Genetics

Family History

"Keith Kogane, please come to the Commander's office."

There was a bit of "ooo"-ing from Keith's classmates, but he ignored them, shutting his history textbook with a whump. He got up and followed the lower-ranked officer to Iverson. Some woman that he'd never seen before was standing with Iverson, holding a mug with something steaming hot, and Shiro was nowhere in sight.

"Shiro can't make it today," Iverson said gruffly at his inquiring glance, "He's got training to do. Science Officer Holt is standing in."

Keith's eyes widened. He hadn't realized that the woman was military. He snapped into military salute. "Ma'am."

She laughed. "At ease. They've trained that into you, haven't they? You can call me Coleen. I'm a friend of Shiro's. We're just going to ask a couple of questions, Keith, and then you can go back to class."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes," Iverson growled, "Sit."

Coleen Holt leaned against Iverson's desk, setting her mug down on the desk as Keith sat in a chair that was too tall for him, his legs swinging aimlessly above the ground.

"You lived in the desert with your dad, is that right, Keith?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Right. So, what about your mother?"

Keith's spine stiffened, and his legs stopped kicking. "What about her?"

"Do you know anything about her? Name? Ethnicity?"

"All I know is that she left us," Keith managed to spit out, "And she never came back."

"Your father never talked about her?"

Keith shrugged. "He said that she was wonderful. Out of this world, even." To his surprise, Iverson and Coleen Holt exchanged a glance at that. "Didn't stop her from running out while I was a baby." He shoved his hands in his pockets, his shoulders reflexively hunching as if making himself smaller would protect him from their inquiring gazes.

"And you don't remember anything about her? Anything at all?"

"No."

"There were no pictures? Anything she left behind?"

Keith thought of the knife tucked away in his room, hidden under a pile of socks in his drawer. "No, ma'am. No pictures."

There was a long pause in which Keith felt a bead of sweat drip down the back of his neck, sure that they would call him out on his lie. But then Coleen Holt smiled. "Alright, then, Keith. You're free to go. Don't skip class, okay?"

Keith practically jumped off of his chair, eager to get out of here as soon as possible. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Wait a moment, cadet," Iverson growled, and Keith froze. "Aren't you wondering why we're asking about your mother?"

"Because... because of my DNA test?" Keith guessed.

"Correct. Once Shirogane is done with his training and you're out of school, we'll talk about it."

"Yes sir." Keith practically bolted from the room. He'd never been more desperate to get to class in his life.

Xxx

Coleen calmly sat down in the chair that Keith had vacated and took a sip of her herbal tea, grown in her own garden. "He's lying," she said calmly, "He does have something that his mother left behind."

"How do you know?"

Coleen chuckled. "He got the same look that my Matt always gets when he's lying to me. Katie can lie fairly well if she's planned out the lie beforehand, but Matt... he gets this cagey, hunted look and won't meet your eyes. Then he exits the room as fast as possible to get away from me. I can always tell when he's lying, and I could tell that Keith was. He might not remember his mother at all, but he certainly owns something that belongs to her."