July 2008. Humanity faced a threat of extinction when an ultra‑magnetic weapon, far more destructive than any known nuclear device, obliterated half the planet in an instant. Massive tectonic upheavals shook the Earth's crust, displaced the planet from its axis, and tore the five continents apart, submerging them beneath the seas. Attempts by several people to flee to space failed; their spacecraft were forced back to Earth, and their hopes shattered. However, one ship narrowly avoided destruction and crash‑landed on a small island that miraculously survived the devastation. Its crew settled on the island, as if they were seeds sown on the…