There has always, since our time first began, been humankind's quest to conquer the unanswered of questions, many of them about the stretches of the universe itself that lie beyond our humble planet... But our forebears never, far less habitually, travelled into space. Today, doctors Arthur and Leroy Lloyd-Jones, both distinguished industrial chemists, both co-founders and co-owners of the prosperous and well-known AL Mechanical and Industrial Corporation headquartered in London, ride into space almost biannually, on orbital tourist flights... The Lloyd-Joneses' most recent such highly expensive tour is part-financed by an unknown third party, in exchange for research in space... When the spaceport in New Mexico welcomes back the spacecraft NightcruiserFive crew, all is fine as usual. Or is it so? Something, eventually, seems far wrong with one of those who returned to Earth on board that flight... The life of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's best secret agent, Luthan Fennes, aka the 'Retimer', is swept into finding out what really happened on NightcruiserFive-he has every reason in the world to know... Who is it who bought the Lloyd-Joneses' research? What did these two doctors discover on tour and bring back with them...?