Blood and Genetics

Of Biology and Metal

Coleen clicked her way up the unusually empty hallway, making her way to Iverson's office from the botany labs. On the way, she saw a dark head duck away, and she peered around the corner.

"Keith? Is that you?"

He scooted out sheepishly, snapping a salute. "Hello, Ma'am."

"What are you doing, wandering the hallways alone?"

Keith flushed red. "Um- well- it's a visiting weekend for the cadets, but..."

"No one to visit?" she guessed softly.

Keith's blush got even darker. "Yeah. Shiro's in training."

Coleen smiled at him. "Why don't you come with me to the botany labs. Have you ever been inside?"

"No."

"Well, then, come on."

Keith followed her cautiously, and she typed in the code to let him in, taking him past the experimental plants in their sterile containers and leading him to the greenhouse. His eyes widened, and he blinked, hard. Coleen laughed.

"You've grown up in this area, right? Been around here your whole life?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Bet you've never seen this much green in one spot," she said proudly.

"No, ma'am."

"Alright. I've got a meeting with Iverson, so I'll be out. If you see a small gremlin lurking about on a computer, that's my daughter, Katie. She doesn't bite. Much."

"Thank you," Keith murmured, still blinking in wonder at all of the plants. Coleen smiled and tapped back down and out of the labs.

Keith stood stock still, breathing all of the scents and colors in. He hadn't been lying before- this much green, among other colors, and on the Garrison campus! It had been here the whole time, and he hadn't ever known that it was here, that there was this much plant life anywhere.

Oh, sure, they'd studied the Amazon, and all of those plants, but it hadn't seemed real, and besides, Keith's chances of going to the Amazon was incredibly unlikely, seeing as how overgrown the forest was, and how he would be flying planes that would have trouble getting through the foliage.

Keith wandered through the veritable forest, careful not to touch anything. A clicking noise met his ears, and he frowned, moving towards it quietly. He poked his head over a table and saw a short girl in jeans and a green T-shirt, typing away at a computer, a stack of books next to her. He watched for a few minutes until she looked up, her amber eyes meeting his unexpectedly.

"Hello."

Keith startled backwards, barely managing to not slam into a hanging plant. She laughed.

"I don't bite."

Keith blinked. What was it that Mrs. Holt had said? "Are you Katie Holt?"

"You met my mom, then? Figures that she was the one who let you in. The code is 24601, by the way, if you want to get in whenever. Mom only thinks that I don't watch her when she types in the keycode. Who are you, then?"

"Kogane. Keith Kogane."

"Oh, the mystery project." Katie tilted her head curiously. "The one that Mom isn't supposed to talk about."

"Huh?"Katie closed her laptop, peering at Keith, her amber eyes glittering. "Mom comes home late sometimes, tells me that she had to stay because there was a genetic issue she needed to be consulted on. A certain Keith Kogane. Then she clams up and won't tell me anything else. Tells me that I don't have high enough clearance for her to tell me."