PROLOGUE:

DATELINE: 5045 CE. A successful career in the NBA and a series of skilled investments in the technologies of the future had made James Harden a very wealthy man. At the age of 100, from behind his oaken desk at his underwater compound, he decided that he would do away with his own death. A series of injections containing super-vitamins, nanobots and pure liquid sunshine were administered. It worked.

Harden lived his life for the people of earth, for the first 2000 years. He brokered world peace in 2506, funded an end to all disease 2658, was instrumental in the creation of the world all-knowledge system, which gave all human beings instant, in their own minds access to all relevant knowledge in 3050. A 3306 robot uprising was put down almost entirely by his own hands. His tearful speech over the graves of the dead inspired a new nature, a perfect synthesis of technology and biology, feeding off each other and creating a perfectly sustainable Earth where everyone lived in a state of constant bliss, our spirits living on in natures upon their death.

Harden’s efforts had made a perfect world. But as he looked to the stars in the year 4506, he knew he had more to do. The sort of eternal life he had had become a curse. He thought occasionally of suicide, but he knew that the world’s devastation at their hero’s despairing death might cause problems.

That night, he went into his library and flipped through some old books. With everyone having had access to all world knowledge for a millennia, books had become an anachronism that only he enjoyed. He chanced on one book, it’s pages yellowed by time even in this climate controlled library: “A HISTORIE OF THE GOOD SHIP MAYFLOWER” As his fingers flipped through the pages, their voyage touched him: a journey to a new world. He thought of the stars. Worlds beyond. He had created the ideal world on Earth. It was his imperative to bring that joy to every living being he could. He must take to space.

So, together with his trusty cyborg assistant Russell Westbot and the good ship Mayflower II, JAMES HARDEN: SPACE PILGRIM was born.

(Theme song, something like Jaaammmeeesss Haaaaardeeeennnn/Pilgrim of spaaaaaaace.)