I'll Never Stop Looking (for the Truth)

Day 7: Conspiracy Theories

For once in her life, Katie Holt had miscalculated.

Her plan had seemed so simple at first. She'd break into Iverson's office at the Galaxy Garrison, hack into his computer, and collect all of the data she needed in order to prove that the report of the Kerberos Mission ending with a fatal pilot error was a lie. After that, she'd hide out in the desert away from prying eyes. She knew from the previous times she'd accessed classified data that there was a shack somewhere between fifteen to twenty miles from the Garrison, once owned by a top commander of the Garrison, but abandoned since his death ten years prior. She figured it was the perfect place to lay low for a while.

Her miscalculation was more of a personal lack of awareness of exactly how far fifteen to twenty miles was, even while traveling on hover-board.

"I hate the outdoors," Katie grumbled to herself as she took shelter in the shade of an overhanging cliff. She sipped a her warm water, trying to conserve it for as long as she could, but knowing better than to not drink at all.

She had a good view of the desert around her and the larger mesas in the distance, but no shack.

After a quick break, Katie shouldered her bag and hopped back on her hover-board, continuing o her way. With a top speed of fifteen miles-per-hour on flat land and even less on the shifting hot sands, she knew she still had at least another hour to go, as long as everything kept going well.

"Hold on, Matt. Dad," she murmured. "I'm going to figure this out."


Keith was not having the best day, to say the least. He'd lot his temper with his instructors, again. He'd yelled at Iverson. Threatened one of the guards who arrived to see what the yelling was about, which, needless to say, was not well received. And when threatened with a court martial, shouted that they didn't need to bother because he was leaving.

He stormed back to his room after that, scooped his meager belongings into a small travel bag, and hit the garage to get his hoverbike before anyone could think to stop him. He gunned it out of there, kicking up a trail of sand in his wake, and made sure to take the long way through town to get to his one remaining sanctuary.

To most it was a lonely, abandoned shack surrounded by desert and tumbleweeds for miles, but to him it was home. He'd grown up in that house, just him and his dad. All of his fondest memories were there.

Well, almost all.

Keith shook off those thoughts as he slid down from his bike and began unloading the supplies he picked up in town. They probably wouldn't last more than a few days and the house was likely in worse shape than when he last saw it, but it would do for the time being. He'd get settled in, make any repairs that were absolutely necessary, and then he could begin his search for the truth.

By the time the sun was dipping low in the sky, Keith had put a decent dent in his cleaning. His childhood home was in better condition than he thought, though there was one window pane that was broken and some of the floorboards creaked more than he remembered.

While he could still see his way around, he went outside to set up a rudimentary alarm system consisting of string and old pots and pans, which would clang together if anything disturbed them. He stepped back to look at his handiwork, which was when he spotted a small figure on the horizon, closing in quickly.

Keith hid behind his hoverbike, which had been covered by a tan tarp, and waited to see who it was. Who could possibly know about his house? It had to be someone from the Garrison. No one else knew.

Unless it was a bandit, who'd been staying there with no one's knowledge.

Keith shook off the silly thought, but unsheathed his knife just to be safe. He watched the small figure arrive just as darkness fully descended around them.

"So this is it," they said as they hopped down from the hover-board they'd been riding on.

Keith crept forward, trying to get a better look at who he was dealing with. He could make out long hair and a pair of oversized glasses, but that was all.

'What's a girl doing out here?' he wondered.

There was only one way to find out. He stepped out of hiding, making no attempt to hide his presence.

The girl spun to face him with an audible gasp of surprise. "Who's there?"

"I should be asking you that," Keith retorted. "Who are you? How do you know about this place?"

"It's on Garrison records," she responded, ignoring his first question. "But no one lives here anymore, so why are you here?"

Keith subtly slid his knife back in its sheath. "This is my home," he partially lied. A coyote yipped from somewhere far off and he cast an uneasy look around. "Come on, lets continue this inside," he told her, turning and starting back towards the house. He looked back when he didn't hear footsteps following him and saw that she was rooted firmly to the same spot. He bit back his automatic response to demand she follow him, trying to see things from her perspective.

A guy, in a supposedly abandoned house, invites a young woman inside without answering any of her questions or giving her reason to trust him? Yeah, that sounded pretty sketchy in hindsight.

'What would Shiro do?'

Well for starters, he probably wouldn't run away from the Garrison like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

But seriously, he'd watched Shiro charm his way out of a number of situations. It couldn't be that hard.

"I, uh, I'm Keith, by the way."

Yeah. Nailed it.

The girl pulled something from her pocket and held it up to eye level. The dull orange glow clued him into the fact that it was a Garrison issued phone just before the camera flash assaulted his vision, blinding him for several long seconds.

"What was that for?!" Keith shouted.

"So if anything happens to me, mom has a photo and a name for the authorities," she said flippantly. She studied the picture for a moment, frowning in confusion. "Wait, are you...? You're Shiro's friend, aren't you?"

"You knew Shiro?" he blurted out. It wasn't that much of a surprise. Everyone at least knew of Takashi Shirogane, pilot of the Kerberos Mission.

She hesitated. "Not exactly. I never had the chance to meet him before they left, but my dad and brother know him," she told him as she started walked towards him, all sense of fear gone.

Keith knew before she spoke again who she was. Even in darkness, there was no mistaking those honeyed locks and piercing brown eyes. She and her mother had been on the news almost as much as their deceased family.

"I'm Katie Holt."


They didn't talk much more as they went inside, each of them taking a moment to decompress in preparation for the long conversation ahead of them.

A thousand questioned raced through Keith's mind. What was she doing all the way out there? How did she really know about his house? Did she believe the Garrison's lies? Or was she sent by the Garrison to investigate how much he knew?

Katie settled in at the table and began unloading her bag, which seemed to be filled entirely with electronics and empty food wrappers. "I don't suppose this place has electricity?" she mused, casting her eyes to the battery operated lanterns providing them with light.

"There are solar panels, but I haven't had time to check them yet," Keith said, trying not to sound offended.

"I can help take a look in the morning, if you want," she volunteered. "I should be fine until then. I've managed to boost the battery life on this baby to fifteen hours." She affectionately patted her laptop and then glanced back at him. "Are you coming over here, or do you have super vision?"

Keith walked over to her. "What's all of this for?"

"Dad, Matt, and Shiro are alive," Katie said, turning her full attention back to her computer as it finished booting up. "There's no evidence of a crash anywhere near or on Kerberos. For some reason, the Garrison is covering it up. I'm going to find out why."

"I knew it. I knew Shiro couldn't... Shiro's alive," Keith breathed, his emotions running haywire.

There was someone who believed him. Someone who felt the same way. Someone running all of these risks to expose the truth. He never could have dreamed that he would have help, but there she was, just as determined and fired up as he was – if not more.

He dragged a second chair over so he could sit next to her. "What's first?"

There was a hint of a smirk on her face as she removed a small drive from her back pocket. "Want to help me look through the top secret info I stole from Iverson's computer?"

Keith couldn't help but stare at her in awe. "You are my hero."

"I know. I'm pretty great," Katie agreed. "I didn't get everything, but this will be a good start. Ready?"

Keith nodded and glued his eyes to the screen.


They worked until the early hours of morning before taking a break. Katie fell asleep curled up on the couch under a thin blanket, where she had planted herself despite Keith's insistence that she take the air mattress. He put it on his list of things to remedy later and begrudgingly slept on his temporary bed.

Keith was the first to wake a few hours later, unable to ignore the way the sun shone directly on his face. He prepared a small breakfast while Katie continued to snooze, making a note of how much food was left. He had picked up enough to last himself a day or two, but with Katie to consider he'd have to go back sooner than that. Possibly that afternoon, once he got the solar panels up and running again.

It wasn't long before Katie woke as well, and he shared his plans with her over a breakfast of dry cereal.

"Mind if I tag along?" she asked.

Keith shrugged. "If you want. I don't have a spare helmet for the hoverbike, just to warn you."

Katie's eyes widened and for a moment Keith worried he may have scared her off from going with him. It turned out he didn't have to worry after all, as she broke out into a grin and said: "Yeah, you seem like the type."

After that, they took some time to get the house's solar power generating. They high-fived once they got all of the pieces to connect properly. Then there was time for Katie to set up her radio scanner and start honing in on the exact point in space she was looking for. They left it running as they set off for their journey into town.

"Do you really think there's something out there?" Keith asked as they walked out to his bike.

Katie nodded. "There has to be! If there was no crash and nothing to suggest they strayed off course, then what else could it be? Dad always said we couldn't be the only intelligent life in the universe."

Keith didn't respond as he tugged the tarp off of his bike, revealing its cherry red paint job. He ignored Katie's muffled laughter as he climbed on and reached out a hand to help her up. He felt her settle behind her, her hands coming to rest on his waist as he twisted the key in the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

"Hold on," he warned her.

And then they were off, flying across the sand.


The first thing Katie did once they made it into town, after walking and talking off the pure adrenaline rush to the amusement of Keith, was to call her mom and let her know she was safe.

"I was starting to get worried, sweetheart. Where are you? When are you coming home?"

"I, uh, don't know yet," Katie said, wincing. "This is the best chance we have at finding dad and Matt. I can't give up now."

"I know and I'm not asking you to. I just... I don't like the thought of you being out there all by yourself. Anything could happen."

Katie hesitated, wondering if she should tell her mom about Keith. It would hardly help her mom's worrying if she knew she was staying at an abandoned shack with a dropout from the Garrison who wore a red and white leather jacket and drove a hoverbike. (Not that her mom really needed to know all of those details from the start, but she had a way of getting that sort of information from Katie with ease.)

Keith took the decision out of her hands as he approached with two jars of peanut butter. "Crunchy or creamy?"

Katie held her cell phone away from her mouth as she replied "creamy", but her mom heard anyway.

"Who are you talking to, Katie?"

She sighed as she watched Keith walk away, adding her favorite peanut butter to his hand basket. "I kind of made a friend? He knows Shiro."

There was a lengthy pause. "He?"

"It's fine, mom. His name's Keith and – "

"Keith what? Do I get a last name?"

"It's, uh..." Katie trailed off as she realized she'd never gotten a last name from him. Though if she was remembering the name of the previous owner correctly and given that Keith had mentioned growing up in that house once or twice while they were making repairs, she thought she had a pretty good idea of what it was. "Hawkins, maybe? That's who used to own the house and Keith says he grew up there."

Colleen Holt went quiet for so long that Katie feared their call had been dropped.

"Mom?"

"I'd like to speak with him."

Katie's stomach swooped unpleasantly at her mom's serious tone. "Is something wrong?"

"That's just a name I haven't heard in a long time and I'd like to be sure."

Katie picked up a box of donuts from the shelf and moved on to find Keith. "Alright, just give me a second," she said, peering down each aisle as she passed. She found him just a few aisles down and held out her phone to him. "My mom wants to talk to you."

Keith hesitantly took the device and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

Figuring she might as well keep shopping, Katie set off towards the canned foods to pick out what she wanted. She tried not to think about what her mom was telling him. She knew she wanted nothing more than for her to come home, but would she try and talk Keith into bringing her back? Or was she just making sure Katie was with someone trustworthy?

Keith was strange for sure and Katie only pretended not to know about the knife he kept on him at all times, but he didn't strike her as someone who was dangerous. At least not to her.

The truth was, he was one of two people who believed her when she said the Kerberos crew was alive and he was willing to help her find out what happened. She wasn't going to give that up for anything.

(And the fact that he was the first person outside of her family who took an interest in what she was doing and was mostly able to keep up with her explanations was kind of refreshing. It may have endeared him to her more than she knew.)

A variety of soups joined the box of donuts in her basket, meticulously picked based on what she thought she might like to eat for the next week. She'd never been much of a canned soup person, but it wasn't like they had a refrigerator for fresh food.

She looked up as Keith approached, her phone held out in front of him. She took it back and put it to her ear. "Everything okay now?"

Her mom sighed in defeat. "Yes, but I want a weekly update, at the least. Stay safe out there, Katie. You two watch out for each other."

Katie watched as Keith perused the soups for himself. "Yeah, mom. We will," she promised.


Weeks went by as they divided their time between house repairs and digging through the data from Iverson's computer, double checking in case there was something they missed the first time. Katie's scanner picked up on blips now and then as she steadily increased the range.

She nearly missed it the first time – a strange, garbled sound between the static that she almost dismissed. Until she heard it again. She froze, listening in excitement as she was unmistakably picking up on alien radio chatter.

"Keith!" She jumped up, nearly ripping her headphones from the jack in her haste to yell at him through the nearest open window. "Keith, come here, quick! You need to hear this!"

Keith dropped the board he was using to build a shelter for his hoverbike, running as fast as he could for the door, which he threw open and didn't bother to shut as Katie eagerly shoved the headphones over his ears.

"Holy shit," he breathed, blue-violet eyes going wide when he heard it. "That's incredible. I can't believe it... Do you think you can get it clearer?

"I can try," Katie said, her determination renewed. She couldn't stop grinning. "You know what this means?"

"Aliens are real."

"Aliens are real," Katie confirmed. "And more importantly, it means dad, Matt, and Shiro are alive! Probably kidnapped by aliens, but alive."

"Now we just need to figure out why," Keith said, passing the headphones back to her.

Katie nodded as she slid them back on. "I'm going to try and see if I can hear anything right now and then I'll work on strengthening the signal."

Keith shuffled a bit and then cautiously placed his hand on her shoulder. "Good work, Katie."

She fought away a blush at the compliment, but her smile didn't diminish in the slightest. And for once, she didn't respond with her usual overconfidence. She simply said: "Thanks."


Try as she might, Katie didn't hear much more than static from her radio after that. She left it running on the off-chance it picked up on something, but it seemed the aliens were done with talking.

Meanwhile, Keith finished the temporary shelter for his bike and then took to exploring the surrounding area, unable to shake the feeling that there was something out there, calling to him. No matter how much he searched, he found nothing.

Nighttime always found the two relaxing at the house, trying to find something productive to do before going to sleep. They'd gotten everything they could out of Iverson's data and the radio proved more stressful than anything, leaving them with a long stretch of time to just sit and talk. As more weeks passed, Katie migrated to the air mattress during their late-night discussions and often found herself falling asleep next to Keith.

It wasn't something either of them talked about, both content with the way things were.

"So, if aliens are real, what else do you think is real that most people dismiss?" Katie asked, easing herself onto the air mattress. "Like... Bigfoot? The yeti? Maybe the chupacabra?"

Keith couldn't help but laugh as he joined her on the bed. "Seriously? This is what you want to talk about?"

Katie gave him an amused look. "Have you seen us lately? Keith, we live in a shack in the middle of the desert, where we spend our days scanning space for alien radio chatter. You've got a board where you've tried to mark out where the strange energy you feel is coming from! We're basically your stereotypical conspiracy theorists at this point! So yes, this is what I want to talk about."

"Okay, okay," Keith said, trying to put on a straight face. "How do you feel about Area 51?"

"Completely bogus. It's just a military base where they text experimental tech and aircraft. They just want everyone to believe it's real to keep suspicion off the true Area 51, which is in Antarctica," Katie said, somehow sounding completely serious.

Keith snorted in amusement. "You've put too much thought into this."

"You're just not ready for the truth," she said, maintaining her poker face for a few seconds longer before breaking out into a grin and pushing at Keith's arm. "Okay, but seriously, are there any cryptids you think are real?"

"Mothman."

"Mothman?"

Keith nodded sagely. "Most people think he's a harbinger of destruction, but he was just trying to warn everyone that they bridge was dangerous. It's not his fault people think he's scary."

"Jackalope's –"

"Fake," Keith interrupted. "Super fake. C'mon, Katie, you can do better than that."

"You're right. I'm sorry. Jackalope's are completely fake and I'm ashamed I ever brought them up," Katie apologized wracking her brain for something else. "The Loveland frog, on the other hand..."

"The Loveland frog?"

Katie hummed as she laid back. "You don't know about that one? In Ohio, there are frogmen that like to hang out under bridges at night. They gather there to gossip and scare away traveling salesmen. Or at least they used to. Now they like to scare kids who are out playing games on their phones."

Keith looked at her for a moment before giving in and laying down as well, rolling on his side to face her. "Maybe once all of this is over and we get your family and Shiro back, we could go out and look."

"What, like, take off on a cross country trip and hunt cryptids?" Katie asked.

"It could be fun."

Katie smiled. "You know, it kind of does sound fun."