Five Loaves and Two Fishes - Star Cluster

In the not-too-distant future a small band of colleagues set out on a trek across the Himalayas.
All goes well and our band of adventurers begin to knit together as a team enjoying meeting new people and activities such as white-water rafting, mountaineering, and skiing. It is while participating in these activities that a disaster strikes that almost brings the trek to a fatal end saved by the intervention of monks who possess a mystifying cure.
After a near miraculous recovery of the injured group member the band go in search of the source of the monks' cure after biochemistry analysis reveals enigmas, this leads them to the discovery of a portal to someplace not of earth. The group decide to conceal their findings choosing to abandon one adventure to that of exploring this new world. They soon discover that the planet is one of a twin that orbits a star, part of a small cluster which they call 'The Five Loaves and Two Fishes'. The planet no longer has animal life which became extinct sometime in the past due to a snowball period in the planet's history. They decide to front their project by creating a seed bank to enable them to introduce earth biological species to Newearth.
One enigma after another has to be overcome requiring new members to be added to the team until suspicion is aroused and a diplomatic deal has to be made. This grants the team freedom to further expand the scientific expedition until its numbers exceed ten thousand. During this time the team leader is seduced by an Indian host and their relationship becomes a focal point. However, conflict between India and Islamic terrorists result in a catastrophic nuclear explosion in the high atmosphere, the effect of which is to rapidly bring about the closure of the portal trapping the exploration teams on Newearth.