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Some stories of terror and the supernormal start with a moonlit face at a dia, or the baying of a hound across lonely an with an eclipse of the raphs, each showing starfields and a planetary object Onlysoraphs was only seven days out of the developer at the time of the eclipse They came from three widely separated observatories and one caraven runes of purest science, at the opposite extreraph struck a twinge of uneasiness in the young scientist first to see it
As he looked at the black dots that should have been thereand at the faint black curlicues that shouldn&039;the felt the barest touch of a strangeness that for a moment made him kin to the cavees
Passing along priority channels, the four photographs caeles Area Headquarters of the Moon Project of the US Space Force - the American Moon Project that was barely abreast of the Russian one, and far behind the Soviet Mars Project And so at Moon Project US the sense of strangeness and unease was sharpest, though expressed in sardonic laughter and a bouncy iinativeness, as is the ith scientists faced with the weird
In the end the four photographs - or rather, what they heralded - starkly affected every hu on Earth, every atom of our planet They opened deep fissures in the human soul
They cost thousands their sanity andto the in this story anywhere - with Wolf Loner in the mid-Atlantic, or Fritz Scher in Ger weed in Harle around Pal her excite pianos in LA, or Charlie Fulby lecturing about flying saucers, or General Spike Stevens understudying the top role in the US Space Force, or Ra in the South China Sea, or with Don Merria Mars Or we could begin it with Tigerishka or Miaow or Ragnarok or the President of the United States But because they were close to that first center of unease near Los Angeles, and because of the crucial part they were to play in the story, ill begin with Paul Hagbolt, a publicist eo Gelhorn, fianc��e of one of the four young Ao&039;s cat Miaoho had a very strange journey ahead of her; and with the four photographs, though they were then only an eerie, top-secretmenace; and with the lea out on the lawn, saw the full moon halfway up the sky Earth&039;s satellite was as vividly three-diold hue fitted the weather rarity of a bal
"There&039;s the bitch up there now," Margo said
Paul Hagbolt, ehed uneasily "You really do think of the ot Don," the blonde girl said flatly "She&039;s even got Miaow here hypnotized" She was holding in her arreen eyes the aze on the moon, or rather toward a point near its top, above the Mare Iuish the crater Plato holding Moonbase US, but he kneas in view
Margo said bitterly: "It&039;s bad enough to have to look up at that graveyard ers of a graveyard planet But now that we have to think about this other thing that&039;s shown up in the astronoo!" Paul said sharply, auto a look around "That&039;s still classified infor about it - not here"
"The Project&039;s turning you into an old auntie! Besides, you&039;ve given iven you even that"
"Well, what are we going to talk about, then?"
Paul let off a sigh "Look," he said, "I thought we came outside to watch the eclipse, ot the eclipse! The moon&039;s turned a little smoky, don&039;t you think? Has it started?"
"Looks like it," Paul said "It&039;s time for first contact"
"What&039;ll the eclipse do to Don?"
"Nothing et dark up there for a while That&039;s all Oh yes, and the terees or so"
"A blast from the seventh circle of Hell and he says, &039;That&039;s all&039;!"
"Not as bad as it sounds You see, the terees above zero to start with," Paul explained
"A Siberian cold wave cubed on top of scalding heat and he says, &039;That&039;s ducky&039;! And when I think of this other, unknown horror creeping toward the o!" The s strictly off the top of your iination? Did you or did you not tell me about four star photos that showed - "
"I told you nothing - nothing that you didn&039;t coo, I refuse to say another word about that Or listen to you over-rev your o inside"
"Go inside? With Don up there? I&039;h - fro"
"In that case," Paul said quietly, "you&039;d better get so more than that jacket I know it seehts are treacherous"
"And nights on the moon aren&039;t? Here, hold Miaow"
"Why? If you think I&039; to travel a loose cat - "
"Because this jacket is too hot! Here, take it and give me Miaow back Why not travel a cat? They&039;re people, same as we are Aren&039;t you, Miaow?"
"They are not They&039;re sireat god Heinlein adood as aborigines or fellahin"
"I don&039;t care about the theory of it, Margo I&039; to travel a nervous cat in my convertible with the top down"
"Miaow&039;s not nervous She&039;s a girl"
"Females are calm? Look at yourself!"
"You won&039;t take her?"
"No!"