02594cam a22003853u 4500 77528 UtSlPG 20260610134809.0 m cr n 260607r20251955utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG en iso639-1 PS Herbert, Frank, 1920-1986 The nothing Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Produced from Fantastic Universe, January 1956 (Vol. 4, No. 6). Release date is 2025-12-22 Tom Trussel (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) The nothing by Frank Herbert is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It imagines a future society built on psychic talents that are fading away, and examines genetic planning, predestination, and the risk of choosing a freer, less certain tomorrow. Jean Carlysle, a teen pyrokinetic, quarrels with her father and goes to a tavern where she meets Claude, a “Nothing” without powers and a fugitive from a government preserve. Both are detained and taken to the Sonoma Preserve, where Claude’s father, Mensor Williams—an elite prescient-telepath—explains that psychic abilities are regressing across generations; in secret, the preserves are reviving old mechanical skills and arranging marriages to sustain crucial talents. Citing a strong genetic match and claiming to have foreseen it, Williams swiftly marries Jean and Claude, giving Jean a telepathy-blocking implant. After Jean briefly returns home, she learns Williams only foresaw their meeting, not their future together. Claude resents the manipulation, but Jean embraces the commitment, and the pair decide to face a “cloudy” future no prescient can see, asserting their own choice amid a world losing its gifts. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: New York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1955 Science fiction Short stories Mate selection -- Fiction Psychic ability -- Fiction Emshwiller, Ed, 1925-1990 Produced from Fantastic Universe, January 1956 (Vol. 4, No. 6). https://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v04n06_1956-01 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77528 118248 118248