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"What's it all about?"

1. Water world +++ , advanced civilization "(The Peeps") (learns that ...)

2. All sentient life (plus most other species) will soon be swept away by a forthcoming cataclysm (which Peeps refer to as "the Doom").

3. A scholar [history?] (Professor Spitfire) takes it upon himself to collect and preserve the legacy of his kind in a "time capsule" that employs advanced technology to protect the contents for many millenia (even when exposed to the gasses and vacuum space or immersed in molten magma), until it reaches a suitable time and place to benefit "an unrelated and unknowable posterity, from some more-habitable planet".

4. A [clandestine?] group ("The Survivors") develops a way to recreate both their species and themselves, wherever the right conditions prevail, long after their own extinction. They also develop mechanisms to create these conditions by transforming a suitable planet. When they become aware of Prof. Spitfire's project, they decide to "piggyback" their devices upon his (not only to launch their devices, but also to have later access to the technology he preserves).

Today's story [began a few years ago | begins a few years from now] when an American Sea Captain discover[ed|s] the first of several artifacts from an alien civilization: a bottle-shaped container with solid-rock "scrolls" inside it.

Translation of the "message in the bottle" is not only tedious (due to strangeness of the alien culture and its neural-net-based means of communication) but also very secretive (due to complex political factors).

Eventually, there are leaks and then intrigue and espionage and lethal clashes, as companies, interest groups, and nations begin to realize the enormity of the technologies being revealed, and ther potential value and power.

Following are two of the many plot lines which come together later, after the further layers of mystery are unfurled and the true nature of the

1. A scientist ("Alan") is caught up in the maelstrom, first due to a viral infection (which causes him strange "compulsions" that lead to the release of a seemingly harmless "cloud" of gas from an lake in Antarctica), and then by competing terrorist groups (plus military/intelligence agents) who believe he or his work somehow holds "the answer" (when, in fact, he does has no idea there is even a "question").

2. It is (gradually) discovered that forces are already at work to accomplish two major goals of the Survivors:
   1. recombining hidden DNA codons to recreate the extinct aquatic species;

   2. beginning the transformation of the planet, greatly reducing such toxic gasses as Nitrogen and Oxygen, eliminating such nuisances as continenents, and various other measures to make it "habitable".

Some phrases for titles and section heads:

	Water, water, everywhere ...

	The undoom

	One creature's dawn is another one's doom.  And vice versa.

	Extinction is supposed to be forever; maybe not.

Religious mishagos:

8-th day:   On the 7th day, God rested. Then the 8th day began.
Some see the 7th day ending with the Flood of Noah; this belief is mistaken.
We are now in the 8th day.

9-th day:   The 7th day ended with the Flood at the time of Noah. Of the creatures of the land only those on his Ark survived into the 8th day. The rainbow is a promise that there will be no more flood.
Two millenia ago, the 8th day and the 9th day began with the Ascenscion of Jesus. As foretold, the 9th and last day shall end with the Second Coming, when the earthly world is consumed by Fire, not by Water.

10-th day:   The 10th day will begin when the world is transformed once again for the Peeps. (Those who cite the rainbow as a promise are greatly mistaken.)

11-day:   The next prime. (No known advocates.)

Cubists:   The perfect model for the days of the world is the the 3-dimensional cube: It has eight verticies, but only seven can be visible at any on time. That is why man can only know of seven days at any one time. When the cube rotates and the eight vertex appears, at least one of the others disappears.
(When the next transformation of the Earth occurs, those who survive will know only 7 days of Creation.)

Hypercubists:   The nature of the world in time is that of a hypercube. We see only the cube at this time, but there are in reality sixteen verticies.

Primes:	2	3	5	7
7-day	0	0	0	1
8-day	0	3	0	0
9-day	0	2	0	0
10-day	1	0	1	0