 A Matter of Traces

"A Matter of Traces" is a science fiction short story by American writer Frank Herbert, first appeared in "Fantastic Universe" magazine in November 1958 and later in Herbert's 1985 short story collection "Eye".It is the first story to mention Herbert's ConSentiency universe, one of his three elaborate fictional universes spanning multiple volumes (the others being the "Dune" universe and the developed with co-author Bill Ransom).