Formally Known As . . . Prologue

Three and a half miles from Saturn (give or take a foot or four), one star shone brighter in the void than the other surrounding chunks of matter that flickered around the planet. From any observatory on Earth, the star was the size of the head of a pin; in space, it was twice the size of the United States. The star's yellow light began to pulse, then turned white hot and exploded, sending flaming gaseous chunks of debris in all directions.

One such chunk, a small one about the size of New York's Empire State Building, struck a larger stationary asteroid that pulsed with a deep green glow. Like a pool ball banking off of the padded corner of the table, the fiery meteor hit the green asteroid and veered to the left, chipping off a piece and fusing itself to it.

The meteor's color changed as it traveled through space. Its white/yellow fire merged with the pulsating green rock, turning it an attractive royal blue. A chunk of the meteor, about the size of a Volkswagen, broke off and was caught in the gravitational pull of Mars, its velocity and density using the planet's outer gravity to slingshot in an altered direction.

Its direction was Earth.

The United States.

New York.

East Seventy-Second Street and Third Avenue, to be exact.

Address unknown.