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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPS
100 1 _aWallace, F. L.
_q(Floyd L.),
_d1915-2004
245 1 4 _aThe assistant self
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, March 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 2.).
500 _aRelease date is 2025-12-19
508 _aSean/IB and Tom Trussel
520 _aThe assistant self by F. L. Wallace is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. It explores an empath’s entanglement with corporate power, identity, and ethical limits as a giant spaceflight firm hunts for a “perfect rocket motor” that could open interstellar travel. Hal Talbot, gifted with extraordinary empathy, is recruited by executive Evan Soleri to discreetly uncover sabotage at TRANSPORTATION’s rocket project. A thermal bomb kills Soleri as he saves Talbot, and under the shock Talbot’s empathy collapses the boundary between them, enabling him to assume Soleri’s identity so completely he even passes fingerprint checks. Posing as Soleri, he works with Randy, a “secretary” who is actually a psychologist, and navigates tense meetings with company president Andrew Taft and the famed scientist Fred Frescura. Talbot ultimately discovers Frescura is the saboteur, convinced humanity is not ready for the stars; in a final act, Frescura triggers multiple thermal capsules, destroying the main shop and killing himself. The trauma breaks Talbot’s assumed persona and he reverts to himself. Randy reveals she had seen through the impersonation yet trusted his motives, and with the company reeling but still standing, the story closes with Talbot poised to take an honest leadership role—his empathy now tempered by hard-won insight. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNew York: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1956
653 _aScience fiction
653 _aIdentity -- Fiction
700 1 _aHunter, Mel,
_d1927-2004
830 0 _aProduced from Fantastic Universe, March 1956 (Vol. 5, No. 2.).
856 4 _uhttps://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Universe_v05n02_1956-03/page/n3/mode/2up
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77510
999 _c118230
_d118230