Hans Rebka holds a semi-official job of "troubleshooter" in the Phemus Circle. The position seems to entail being assigned an area or problem to solve and then doing whatever possible to solve the problem. In "Summertide", Rebka is sent to the planet Opal to help Maxwell Perry, a fellow troubleshooter, get out of a long-term funk. During this time, he meets most of the other characters in the series and experiences the events on Opal and Quake that lead to the discovery of the artifacts Glister and Serenity in "Divergence".