Plot

Three astronauts return from man's first flight into outer space and can't remember the trip.

Three U.S. astronauts blast off from Earth on an initial test flight in an experimental rocket-ship, but during the flight into space the ship disappears from radar, then reappears. On return, the rocket-ship is hangared and put under a tarp, pending an investigation. One crewman is hospitalized for a leg broken on landing, and is visited by the other two. Next the pair go for a drink, and then one crewman phones his parents from a bar phone-booth - but they say they have no son! The astronaut immediately disappears, and no one in the bar remembers him, except the other astronaut in the bar, the Captain.—David Stevens

The X-20 experimental spacecraft recently returned after venturing into a 900 mile orbit around the Earth. At one point, the craft disappeared for about 20 seconds and then suddenly reappeared before crashing in the Mojave desert. One of the crew, Maj. William Gart broke his leg on reentry but is recovering. Another of the astronauts, Lt. Col. Clegg Forbes, visits him but is obviously quite shaken. His recollection is there were 3 astronauts in the craft but the newspaper accounts mention only two. The third was Col. Ed Harrington but Gart says he never heard of him. As Forbes remembers it, he and Harrington went out the night before and Harrington begins to have a sense of not belonging. He then vanishes. As he searches for his friend, he can find no one who ever met the man—garykmcd

The X-20, an experimental interceptor crashed to Earth in the Mojave desert and now Air Force officials examine it in its hangar. It disappeared from the radar screen for 24 hours.

Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes is at the hospital outside the room of his fellow crewmate, Major William Gart. When a nurse approaches him Clegg asks her if Gart is still there and the nurse, surprised, says that he is. Clegg goes into Gart's room, and Gart says that he feels fine. Clegg looks around and says that the ship is fine and they put it under wraps. Gart says that Clegg doesn't look well, and Clegg lights a cigarette, his hand shaking.

Clegg shuts the door and says that he wants to asks some questions to get oriented. He asks Gart when he left there, and then says that he walked out with someone. Gart says that Clegg didn't leave with anyone, and Clegg shows him a newspaper with a headline of the two of them in the crash. The photo shows the two of them. Clegg goes over how that blacked out when the ship disappeared, then says that there three of them, and Colonel Ed Harrington was the three. They brought the three of them to the hospital, and only Gart had a broken leg while the other two only had scratches. The doctors discharged Clegg and Harrington. Gart says that he doesn't know anyone named Harrington, only two of them went up, and Harrington left alone.

When Gart says that he should have someone look at him, Clegg goes over everything that happened, repeating Gart's exact words to Harrington.

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The previous day, Harrington jokes with Gart and then leaves with Clegg. There's a newspaper there talking about three men and a photo of all three of them.

Harrington and Clegg to a bar, and the bartender recognizes them and says the drinks are on the house. A woman chats with Clegg, and Harrington looks at himself in the mirror over the bar. He stares and both Clegg and the bartender notices. Harrington drops his beer and clutches at his head, and tells Clegg that he feels like he doesn't belong there and he'd disappear if he let himself go. Harrington takes a drink that the bartender brings him and then goes to call his folks. He goes to a phone booth and makes the call.

A few minutes later, Harrington staggers out of the booth and calls Clegg over. He says that he called his parents and his mother told him that he didn't have a son. Harrington's father got on the phone, also said he didn't have a son, and told Harrington to get off the phone. Harrington feels like he isn't there, and it feels like they shouldn't have come back from the flight and something or someone let them come back when it shouldn't have.

Clegg goes to get Harrington a drink, picks up a newspaper from a table, and sees that it now says that only two men went up. He goes to the phone booth and discovered that Harrington is gone. Clegg goes back to the bar and notices that Harrington's glass is gone. The bartender and the woman have no memory of Harrington, and the bartender says that Clegg came in there alone. Clegg yells that the bartender is crazy and storms out.

A panicked Clegg goes home and calls the air force base. The commanding officer is out and he hangs up. His girlfriend Amy comes in, and Clegg says that he's in trouble. Amy complains that Clegg didn't pick her up at the bus station, and then realizes that Clegg is upset. He says that he wired her to come, takes out the wire, but it has no mention of Harrington like he remembers it. Amy doesn't know who Harrington is, even when Clegg says that they double-dated a hundred times.

Clegg's commanding office calls, and Clegg talks to him. When he says Harrington, the general says that he doesn't remember Harrington, then breaks into tears and hangs up. Then Clegg chuckles and figures that it's a gag, and Harrington is still at the bar. Clegg goes back there and calls through the doors to Harrington, then breaks in and plaintively calls to his crewmate, and begs him to show himself. He falls into the booth and begs Harrington to come back.

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Clegg tells Gart that he ran down the street afterward, and doesn't know what happened to Amy. Gart says that he never heard of Harrington and he must be an illusion. Clegg insists that Harrington isn't an illusion and was yanked away by whatever made a mistake and let them go through when they shouldn't have gotten back. He figures that it feels like he doesn't belong, goes to the room's mirror, sees that his reflection isn't there, yells that he doesn't want it to happen, and runs out of the room. Gart goes out but there's no sign of Clegg, and the nurse has never heard of Clegg. Now there's only one bed in the room instead of three, and the nurse helps Gart to his bed. The newspaper says that Gart was the only astronaut who went up.

Major Henderson comes back, and the nurse tells him that the ward is empty. They check the room, and there's no beds there.

The X-20 disappears from the hangar, and no one remembers it or the crew.