E.P. killing the oil patch, and they are going to Denver. I'll slipyou into my books, and hopefully mom wont look too closely. I don't wantto lose you... it feels like you are a real friend to me, maybe my onlyfriend. Kinda sad, isn't it?*****Hay, diary, welcome to Aurora, Colorado. Its a little bedroom town justoutside Denver. Its pretty, and its a lot like Calgary, to be honest.The weirdest thing is, I'm no longer in Junior high. Grade nine is partof high school here. I hate transferring. Wecouldn't yet afford to hire anyone else. That's when mom got that faraway look in her eye. When she looked at me again, she had that littlegrin of hers, which is when I knew what she was thinking, and I didn'tlike it. I know enough about clothes to sell them, any idiot can readthe tag, but beyond that, I don't have a clue, and don't want oneeither!"We can solve this problem quite easily Bobby. We'll simply make youlook like a girl. That way it will still be you and I, and we won'thave a. Don't make me pry it out of you."Benni took off his shirt and let Dember stare at the Skin Melt on his chest. Dember ran his finger gently over the healing wound from one end to the other."That must be quite a story," Dember said."This was only the beginning of the story, Dember. Would you run and fetch a bucket? I think I'm going to vomit."Dember returned in an instant. On his knees, Benni retched, spitting out the thin contents of his stomach into the pail, experiencing again the metallic. The outside of its hull (the Martians did not refer to their ships as "he" or "she," just "it") bristled with passive sensors that pulled in and recorded every electromagnetic frequency in every known spectrum. These sensors collected radio waves, digital signals, even communications lasers, as they were beamed back and forth between ground stations, orbital platforms, and relay satellites. Inside the ship itself, computers running decryption programs years more advanced than what Earth.