
Transcriber's note.
Illustrated by Freas
The Paratime Police are tasked with policing not just one world, but the endless web of alternate timelines that branch off from every choice. When a gang of smugglers slips through a hidden probability line, the chase becomes a needle‑in‑a‑haystack problem on a cosmic scale. Guard captain Kiro Soran, clad in a scarlet‑lined cloak, leads the pursuit, balancing the rigid duties of his order with the unsettling reality of a multi‑verse crime scene.
The story opens on a distant plantation where human lives are bought and sold like cargo. As Soran and his crew confront the slavers, they must navigate the brutal economics of the Zarkantha sector while questioning the morality of their own involvement. The tense negotiations, the clash of cultures, and the looming mystery of where the captured workers truly came from set the stage for a gritty, high‑concept adventure that explores both the far‑flung possibilities of parallel worlds and the very human cost of exploitation.
Language
en
Duration
~3 hours (211K characters)
Series
Produced from Astounding Science Fiction Magazine February and March 1955
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
Apr 11, 2006
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1904–1964
A self-taught science fiction writer with a gift for big ideas, he built sweeping future histories and alternate worlds that still feel lively today. Best known for Little Fuzzy and the Paratime stories, he wrote adventure-driven fiction with a sharp interest in politics, language, and how civilizations work.
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