Although there could conceivably be an infinity of such worlds, in his stories Piper posits the existence of five, which he calls Time Levels. Lateral time-travelers, then, make corresponding shifts in time. "Police Operation" (1948) alternates between descriptions of an adventurous hunt for an elusive monster and explanations of the various levels of time-travel. In "Time Crime" (1955) the paratime police search out criminals who attempt to meddle with the time-tracks. Alternate historical outcomes during the Napoleonic Wars are the focus of "He Walked Around the Horses" (1948). The two stories "Gunpowder God" (1964) and "Down Styphon!" (1965) were expanded to form
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (1965).
Most of Piper's other short stories deal with his second major theme: the rise, decline, and regeneration of civilization in the Terran Federation. As Anthony R. Lewis points out, John W. Campbell, Jr., the editor of Astounding Science-Fiction after World War II, "demanded of his writers internal consistency, believeability, and, above all, a story. A story about people doing something ... [believing] that problems could be solved, that intelligence and logic and goodwill and determination and hard work was the way." Piper fulfilled these requirements in his stories, and the attitude carries through in his novels as various characters attempt to solve a myriad of problems.
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