Frank Poole was last seen alive in the vicinity of the United States Spaceship Discovery en route to Jupiter's moons The year was AD 2001 and the Series 900 HAL computer on board Discovery had malfunctioned Grappling frantically with the broken air hose of his spacesuit, Frank died in the blackness and vacuum of space In AD 3001 his perfectly preserved body is retrieved by Captain Dimitri Chandler of the spacetug Goliath medical and electro-optical technologies restore his life and then enhance it with a Braincap