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PROLOGUE

HE WATCHES ME

Like a fish out of water.

—Thomas Shadwell

Mellie Smith, 28 Bi-September, Mars Year viii

Habitat Three, Planet Mars

Excerpt from the Diary of Mellie Smith

Daddy’s sick again. Mother doesn’t want me to know, but I overheard them talking about it:

He said, “They don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

She said, “Your color’s not good, Alex. I’m really worried. There has to be something messing around with your metabolism.”

He said, “I tried to ask Big Guy if he could help, but you know how it is trying to talk with the Marties—the answers are sometimes harder to understand than the questions. All he would say is ‘Yes’ when I queried him about whether I was OK, but what the hell does that mean? I keep getting these cramps in my legs at night, like someone’s jabbed a needle through the muscle and bone. It wakes me up—and that wakes you up.”

“What does Markus say?”

“Well, he’s really an exo-biologist, not a physician, but he said there were some unusual markers showing up in my blood cells. He’s talked it over with Dr. Wickizer.”

“What does that mean?”

“The alien doodads—their genetic DNA—are somehow multiplying throughout my body. Markus and Wickizer believe that my physiology is gradually changing—and they’ve seen the beginnings of similar changes in some of the other Sensitives here.”

“Oh, God, what about Mellie?”

“Her too. But she’s younger and more adaptable than I am, and so the alterations have been easier on her system than mine—or at least that’s what they’re telling me.”

I don’t want to be different from anyone else. I love Buddy, but I don’t want to be him. He’s a Martie, and he doesn’t think or feel like I do. He’s also a boy, and boys are nasty sometimes. Maybe that’s why he’s so different. And I certainly don’t want to be like Big Guy. He’s really creepy at times.

He watches me, even when he isn’t there. I can feel him inside me, just like I feel Buddy—and sometimes even Daddy and Mother. He knows what I think. I caught him once last week creeping through my mind, and I waited for him around one corner, and jumped out and said “Boo!” It surprised him, I think, because he went away for several days. Then he came back again, but more quietly. Sometimes Crook Mouth or Long Arm join him.

And sometimes, just recently, sometimes I’ve been able to See inside him.

Now, isn’t that a switch!