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broader view. The day itself was warm and sunny and the mountains beckoned in the distance. Often he woke himself by exploring the top of the mountain range, focusing on water, and letting the sparkle take him. The diversity was one reason why he had settled in this Period. He loved the peacefulness of it.
    Chasing damn alarms made him angry.
    After six-point-seven years of Real Time, he still got angry. That last alarm had taken almost two days of his Real Time and forced him to go to a cold Period during winter months. It took almost a week of Real Time after his return to shake the trauma of the experience from his bones. He had received a commendation for that little adventure. But the commendation had been small recompense for the days of chill.
    Saunas, steam baths, and cutting wood in the hot jungle sun hadn't warmed him. He finally had to ask Medical for a balm to get the winter out of his system. No use complaining. The alarm had sounded and he had to respond. He supposed he shouldn't be so angry at earning his salary now and then. Without the Watchman job he would never have afforded this beautiful, house.
    He stood, stretching his tall frame and loosening tight muscles. He had just finished his first workout of the day before his nap. His loose-fitting green warmup suit was a bit gamy, and his headband had stuck to his forehead.
    With one last longing glance at the lush jungles and the rocky mountains in the distance, he tapped a seven-digit code into a small console on the wall near the entrance to his kitchen. He used the console every day to report in. Food and supplies also came thanks to that console, and occasionally he received calls from friends. But it felt odd to his fingers to be punching in his security code again.
    He first looked for a date on the readout, then sighed. Of course they would send him somewhere cold and dark. Seven and a half million years in the future. Couldn't someone mess with the Time Stations in the summer months? Probably not.
    The stations were abandoned after the Second Expansion Period and the ships looked ripe for the taking. At least he wouldn't have to deal with his own kind. There were only a few really crazy folks who lived that far up the time line, and most of them were a million or so years even farther into the future. Real nut cases who seemed to find the desertlike periods enjoyable.
    Much as he hated where he was heading, he appreciated the fact that he would be alone. His own people sometimes interfered when faced with an interloper.
    Better to handle it alone. Much better. Maybe he would earn another commendation.
    Another commendation would bring a significant 43 raise in pay. He would be able to install view windows in the west wing of the house.
    Enough dreaming. He had to respond to the alarm first.
    The readout showed that no one had lived anywhere near the alarm for thousands of Real Time years.
    He'd had some experience with this specific Period. The only creatures that triggered alarms were PlanetHoppers. They were always the most difficult to handle. Their cultures were sophisticated enough to allow them to travel through space, but still primitive enough to limit that travel to physical movement.
    Often PlanetHoppers would see things like the old Time Stations as places to be plundered, thinking them truly abandoned. The last time he had been to this specific Period he had spent five Real Time days howling like a jungle cat before realizing that the PlanetHoppers thought the wind made the sound.
    Fortunately he had other tricks that sent those nosy little PlanetHoppers back to their Vacuum Ships.
    He tapped in his response code, informing the Mean Time Control that he was headed for the alarm, then turned and walked quickly through the comfortable green hallways to his bedroom. There, he doublechecked the readout on the secondary display.
    Of course. A part of the planet and a time of year there almost as cold as his previous alarm. He would need all of