“A Can of Vacuum”
by L. Ron Hubbard

---

Publication date: December 1949

Original publication: Astounding Science Fiction

Genre: Science Fiction

Story description: A new recruit finds himself the target of a practical joke at the hands of a United Galaxies Navy project assignment officer, but the ruse backfires in a very unexpected way.

Currently available as part of the Stories from the Golden Age series, in the title One Was Stubborn.