The stars are gone."
"What's gone?"
"The stars. Don't you see? They're gone."
"I don't know what you're talking about, pilot. Cmon. Let's have us a ball."
He tore himself away from her claws and ran. Halfway down the footway was a
public v-phone alcove. He stepped in and dialed information. The screen lit and
a robot voice spoke: "Question?"
"What's happened to the stars?" Reich asked. "When did it happen? It must have
been noticed by now. What's the explanation?"
There was a click, a pause, then another click. "Will you spell the word,
please."
"Star!" Reich roared. "S-T-A-R. Star!"
Click, pause, click. "Noun or verb?"
"God damn you! Noun!"
Click, pause, click. "There is no information listed under that heading," the
canned voice announced.
Reich swore, then fought to control himself. "Where's the nearest Observatory to
the city?"
"Kindly specify city."
"This city. New York."
Click, pause, click. "The Lunar Observatory at Croton Park is situated thirty
miles north. It may be reached by Jumper Route North Coordinate 227. The Lunar
Observatory was endowed in the year two thousand---"
Reich slammed down the phone. "No information listed under that heading! My God!
Are they all crazy?" He ran out into the streets, searching for a Public Jumper.
A piloted machine cruised past and Reich signalled. It swooped to pick him up.
"Northco 227," he snapped as he stepped into the cabin. "Thirty miles. The Lunar
Observatory."
"Premium trip," the driver said.
"I'll pay it. Jet!"
The cab jetted. Reich restrained himself for five minutes, then began casually:
"Notice the sky?"
"Why, mister?"
"The stars are gone."
Sycophantic laugh.
"It's not supposed to be a joke," Reich said. "The stars are gone."
"If it ain't a joke, it needs explaining," the driver said. "What the hell are
stars?"
A blasting reply trembled on Reich's lips. Before it could erupt, the cab landed
him on the observatory grounds close to the domed roof. He snapped: "Wait for
me," and ran across the lawns to the small stone entrance.
The door was ajar. He entered the observatory and heard the low whine of the
dome mechanism and the quiet click of the observatory clock. Except for the low
glow of the clock-light, the room was in darkness. The twelve-inch refractor was
in operation. He could see the observer, a dim outline, crouched over the
eyepiece of the guiding telescope.
Reich walked toward him, nervous, strained, flinching at the loud clack of his
footsteps in the silence. There was a chill in the air.
"Listen," Reich began in a low voice. "Sorry to bother you but you must have
noticed. You're in the star business. You have noticed, haven't you? The stars.
They're gone. All of them. What's happened? Why hasn't there been any alarm?
Why's everybody pretending? My God! The stars! We always take them for granted.
And now they're gone. What's happened? Where are the stars?"
The figure straightened slowly and turned toward Reich. "There are no stars," it
said.
It was the Man With No Face.
Reich cried out. He turned and ran. He flew out of the door, down the steps and
across the lawn to the waiting cab. He blundered against the crystal cabin wall
with a crack that dropped him to his knees.
The driver pulled him to his feet. "You all right, Mac?"
"I don't know," Reich groaned. "I wish I did."
"None of my business," the driver said, "but I think you ought to see a peeper.
You're talkin' crazy."
"About the stars?"
"Yeah."
Reich gripped the man. "I'm Ben Reich," he said, "Ben Reich of Monarch."
"Yeah, Mac. I recognized you."
"Good. You know what I can do for you if you do me a favor? Money... New Job...
Anything you want..."
"You can't do nothin' for me, Mac. I already been adjusted at Kingston."
"Better. An honest man. Will you do me a favor for the love of God or anything
you love?"
"Sure, Mac."
"Go into that building. Take a look at the man behind the telescope. A good
look. Come back and describe him to me."
The driver departed, was gone five minutes, then returned.
"Well?"
"He's just an ordinary guy, Mac. Sixtyish. Bald. Got lines in his face kinda
deep. His ears stick out and he's got what they call a weak chin. You know. It
kinda backslides."
"It's nobody... nobody," Reich muttered.
"What?"
"About those stars," Reich said. "You never heard of them? You never saw them?
You don't know what I'm talking about?"
"Nope."
"Oh God..." Reich moaned. "Sweet God..."
"Now don't warp your orbit, Mac." The driver thumped him powerfully on the back.
"Tell you something. They taught me plenty up at Kingston. One of them things
was... Well, sometimes you get a crazy notion. It's brand new, see? But you
think you always had it. Like... oh... for instance, that people always had one
eye and now all of a sudden they got two."
Reich stared at him.
"So you run around yellin': `For Chrissakes, where did they all of a sudden get
two eyes everybody?' And they say: `They always got two eyes.' And you say: `The
hell they did. I distinctly remember everybody got one eye.' And by God you
believe it. And they have a hell of a time knockin' the notion outa you." The
driver thumped him again. "Seems to me, Mac, like you're on a one-eye kick."
"One eye," Reich muttered. "Two eyes. Tension, apprehension, and dissension have
begun."
"What?"
"I don't know. I don't know. I've had a rough time the last month. Maybe...
Maybe you're right. But---"
"You want to go to Kingston?"
"No!"
"You want to stay here and mope about them stars?"
Abruptly, Reich shouted: "What the hell do I care about the stars!" His fear
turned to hot rage. Adrenalin flooded his system, bringing with it a surge of
courage and high spirits. He leaped into the cab. "I've got the world. What do I
care if a few delusions go with it?"
"That's the way, Mac. Where to?"
"The Royal Palace."
"The which?"
Reich laughed. "Monarch," he said, and roared with laughter all the flight
through the dawn to Monarch's soaring tower. But it was a semi-hysterical
laughter.
The office ran around-the-clock shifts, and the night staff was in the last
drowsy stages of the 12-8 shift when Reich bustled in. Although they had not
seen much of him in the past month, the staff was accustomed to these visits,
and shifted smoothly into high gear. As Reich went to his desk he was followed
by secretaries and sub-secretaries carrying the urgent agenda of the day.
"Let all that wait," he snapped. "Call in the entire staff... all department
heads and organizational supervisors. I'm going to make an announcement."
The flutter soothed him and recaptured his frame of reference. He was alive
again, real again. All this was the only reality... the hustle, the bustle, the
annunciator bells, the muted commands, the quick filling of his office with so
many awed faces. All this was a preview of the future when bells would ring on
planets and satellites and world supervisors would scuttle to his desk with awe
on their faces.
"As you all know," Reich began, pacing slowly and darting piercing glances into
the faces that watched him, "We of Monarch have been locked in a death-struggle
with the D'Courtney Cartel. Craye D'Courtney was killed some time ago. There
were complications that have just been ironed out. You'll be pleased to hear
that the road is open for us now. We can commence operation of Plan AA to take
over the D'Courtney Cartel."
He paused, waiting for the excited murmur that should respond to his
announcement. There was no response.
"Perhaps," he said, "some of you do not comprehend the size of the job and the
importance of the job. Let me put it this way... in terms you'll understand.
Those of you that are city supervisors will become continental supervisors.
Continental supervisors will become satellite chiefs. Present satellite chiefs
will become planetary chiefs. From now on, Monarch will dominate the solar
system. From now on all of us must think in terms of the solar system. From now
on..."
Reich faltered, alarmed by the blank looks around him. He glanced around, then
singled out the chief secretary. "What the hell's the matter?" he growled.
"There been news I haven't heard yet? Bad news?"
"N-No, Mr. Reich."
"Then what's eating you? This is something we've all been waiting for. What's
wrong with it?"
The chief secretary stammered: "We... I... I'm s-sorry, sir. I d-don't know what
y-you're talking about."
"I'm talking about the D'Courtney Cartel."
"I... I've n-never heard of the organization, Mr. Reich, sir. I... we..." The
chief secretary turned around for support. Before Reich's unbelieving eyes the
entire staff shook their heads in mystification.
"D'Courtney on Mars!" Reich shouted.
"On where, sir?"
"Mars! Mars! M-A-R-S. One of the ten planets. Fourth from the sun." Gripped by
the returning terror, Reich bellowed incoherently. "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Mars! Mars! Mars! A hundred and forty-one million miles from
the sun, Mars!"
Again the staff shook their heads. There was a rustle and they backed away
slightly from Reich. He darted at the secretaries and tore the sheafs of
business papers from their hands. "You've got a hundred memos about D'Courtney
on Mars there. You've got to. My God, we've been battling it out with D'Courtney
for the last ten years. We---"
He clawed through the papers, throwing them wildly in all directions, filling
the office with fluttering snow. There was not one reference to D'Courtney or
Mars. There was neither any reference to Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, nor the other
satellites.
"I've got memos in my desk," Reich shouted. Hundreds of them. You lousy liars!
Look in my desk..."
He darted to the desk and yanked out drawers. There was a stunning explosion.
The desk burst asunder. Fragments of flying fruit-wood slashed the staff, and
Reich was hurled back against the window by the desk top which smacked him like
a giant's hand.
"The Man With No Face!" Reich cried. "Christ Almighty!" He shook his head
feverishly, and clung to the paramount obsession. "Where are the files? I'll
show you in the files... D'Courtney and Mars and all the rest. And I'll show
him, too. The Man With No Face... Come on!"
He ran out of his office and burst into the file vaults. He tore out rack after
rack; scattering papers, clusters of piezo crystals, ancient wire recordings,
microfilm, molecular transcripts. There was no reference to D'Courtney or Mars.
There was no reference to Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, the asteroids, the
satellites.
And now indeed the office was alive with hustle and bustle, annunciator bells,
strident commands. Now the office was stampeding, and three burly gentlemen from
`Recreation' came trotting into the vaults directed by the bleeding secretary
who urged: "You must! You must! I'll take the responsibility!"
"Easy now, easy now, easy now, Mr. Reich," they said with the hissing noise with
which hostlers soothe savage stallions. "Easy... easy...easy..."
"Get away from me, you sons of bitches."
"Easy, sir. Easy. It's all right, sir."
They deployed strategically while the hustle and the bustle increased and the
bells sounded and voices far off called: "Who's his doctor? Get his doctor.
Somebody call Kingston. Did you notify the police? No, don't. No scandal. Get
the legal department, will you! Isn't the Infirmary open yet?"
Reich's breath came and went in snarls. He overturned files in the path of the
burly gentlemen, put his head down and bulled straight through them. He raced
through the office to the outside corridor and the Pneumatique. The door opened;
he punched Science-city 57. He stepped into the air-shuttle and was shot over to
Science where he stepped out.
He was on the laboratory floor. It was in darkness. Probably the staff imagined
he had dropped to the street level. He would have time. Still breathing heavily,
he trotted to the lab library, snapped on the lights and went to the reference
alcove. A sheet of frosted crystal, cocked like a draft-board, was set before a
desk chair. There was a complicated panel of control buttons alongside it.
Reich seated himself and punched READY. The sheet lit up and a canned voice
spoke from an overhead speaker.
"Topic?"
Reich punched SCIENCE.
"Section?"
Reich punched ASTRONOMY.
"Question?"
"The universe."
Click-pause-click. "The term universe in its complete physical sense applies to
all matter in existence."
"What matter is in existence?"
Click-pause-click. "Matter is gathered into aggregates ranging in size from the
smallest atom to the largest collection of matter known to astronomers,"
"What is the largest collection of matter known to astronomers?" Reich punched
DIAGRAM.
Click-pause-click. "The sun." The crystal plate displayed a dazzling picture of