Produced by Greg Weeks, Geetu Melwani and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE SKY IS FALLING By LESTER DEL REY [Illustration: THE SKY IS FALLING WHEN MEN RULED THE STARS--AND THE STARS RULED MEN!] Transcriber note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed. * * * * * Dave stared around the office. He went to the window and stared upwards at the crazy patchwork of the sky. For all he knew, in such a sky there might be cracks. In fact, as he looked, he could make out a rift, and beyond that a ... hole ... a small patch where there was no color, and yet the sky there was not black. There were no stars there, though points of light were clustered around the edges, apparently retreating. * * * * * THE SKY IS FALLING By LESTER DEL REY ace books A Division of Charter Communications Inc. 1120 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10036 Copyright (C) 1954, 1963 by Galaxy Publishing Corp. A shorter and earlier version of this story appeared as "No More Stars" under the pseudonym of Charles Satterfield in _Beyond Fantasy Fiction_ for July, 1954 _First Ace printing: January, 1973_ * * * * * THE SKY IS FALLING I "Dave Hanson! By the power of the true name be summoned cells and humors, ka and id, self and--" Dave Hanson! The name came swimming through utter blackness, sucking at him, pulling him together out of nothingness. Then, abruptly, he was aware of being alive, and surprised. He sucked in on the air around him, and the breath burned in his lungs. He was one of the dead--there should be no quickening of breath within him! He caught a grip on himself, fighting the fantasies of his mind, and took another breath of air. This time it burned less, and he could force an awareness of the smells around him. But there was none of the pungent odor of the hospital he had expected. Instead, his nostrils were scorched with a noxious odor of sulfur, burned hair and cloying incense. He gagged on it. His diaphragm tautened with the sharp pain of long-unused muscles, and he sneezed. "A good sign," a man's voice said. "The followers have accepted and are leaving. Only a true being can sneeze. But unless the salamander works, his chances are only slight." There was a mutter of agreement from others, before an older voice broke in. "It takes a deeper fire than most salamanders can stir, Ser Perth. We might aid it with high-frequency radiation, but I distrust the effects on the prepsyche. If we tried a tamed succubus--" "The things are untrustworthy," the first voice answered. "And with the sky falling, we dare not trust one."