Synopsis: Forty Nights and Gaia Strikes. The story begins in an underground Hot Lab, a facility dedicated to virus research and the control of epidemics. It is staffed by a skeleton crew between Christmas and News Years at a time when the world is planning to start a new century. Although the staff number is small, it includes 42 highly skilled people that could still respond to a major virus outbreak should one occur during the holidays. There are scientist, lab technicians, engineers, pilots, doctors, and even two skilled cooks. With no warning, the HIV virus mutates into an airborne strain that is carried by global winds, and within a week, over eight billion people die. The scientists are secure in their Hot Lab where the same safe guards meant to keep dangerous pathogens inside, now act effectively in keeping Airborne HIV out. At first, their commander, Colonel Richard Marsh, is reluctant to be their new leader facing this new challenge.

He feels that dealing with religion, depression, and a thousand other social issues would fall outside his skill sets. The situation gradually changes as the 40 people gain confidence in him and in a theory that gradually unites everyone and gives them a new hope for a more secure future. The underlying theory in this book is called the Gaia Hypothesis, a scientific theory proposed by James Lovelock, a British scientist, who has presented a new way of looking at life on earth. The theory advances the idea that the planet Earth functions as a single living organism. It had a birth billions of years ago, it has evolved for as many years, and it has gradually come to control the atmosphere and its own environment.