What if my lawyer does not show up at my preliminary hearing?

My public defender?
Because i haven’t got one yet and my court date is tuesday.
Can i ask for a continuance due to the fact that i am not being represented by a lawyer/attorney?
Don’t they have to make sure that I have some sort of lawyer?
If he is not there, does that mean it will get prolonged? Or what? I don’t know what to plead to until I talk to my public defender.
Does pleading not guilty, can that post pone it till i get my public defender and then they re-do it or what?
and that’s the thing, i haven’t been able to contact my lawyer or anything.

okay, well i’ll ask for a continuance due to that.
Okay, two people gave that guy a thumbs down, but didn’t answer the question. Wow.