Prologue
It was now almost 8 pm on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, in Dreamrose, Minnesota, when several people were assembling in The Dreamrose Cafe. They were all now preparing for a likely-long journey that'd quite hopefully change the overall history of Dreamrose and of Earth for the better in the near future, but still which had many potential risks involved in the process of making that particular journey that they were about to make in their lives. Those people included at least several people now in their twenties and thirties, if not more, and even at least a few high school-aged or younger people, in fact. The Dreamrose Cafe was still where it had been more than seventeen years before. But much of the immediate and general area around it had been subjected to the long-term effects of rather heavy fighting between many Terrans and many space aliens, especially over the last fifteen or so Terran years.
Much of the town of Dreamrose, Minnesota, had periodically come under quite heavy attack indeed by many often-different aliens from any number of the many other uncountable worlds in the now-known Universe. Much, if not most, of what had actually once been present quite well enough in Dreamrose, Minnesota, in early 2008 was now either totally destroyed, or at least heavily damaged, if it wasn't somehow destroyed at all by those aliens from many other worlds. Dreamrose had been a mostly peaceful town, at least, up until the aforementioned aliens had eventually invaded Earth in November 2011, not long after the mid-term elections in the United States of America. After they invaded Earth, Earth eventually found itself at war with those very same alien invaders, of course. Many major enough cities and towns on Earth were conquered, destroyed, or at least damaged, by those aliens in many attacks all over Earth's planetary surface. And even in some attacks that were made below it, like underwater, for example. Among the cities that were destroyed by the aliens in question as of the current date in time were Terran cities such as Jakarta, Liverpool, Leipzig, and Hanoi, to name just four of many such places anywhere on or in the Earth. Millions of people in those cities and elsewhere on or in the Earth eventually died because of those many aliens' attacks, for that matter.
The people who were now assembling anywhere inside the aforementioned Cafe included many veterans of often-heated battle against those aliens, even many of the school-aged inhabitants of Dreamrose, Minnesota, by the way. Dreamrose, Minnesota, had lost much of its previous population in the war against those aliens, whether by evacuation to other places in the known Universe or by losing them due to the aliens' attacks. At the present time, there was a somewhat uneasy cease-fire between those aliens and the people of Earth, for both sides had begun running out of supplies and/or personnel to fight well enough at the current time in the war they'd been raging ever since the aliens' first invasion of Earth, in fact.
This present cease-fire had held for at least two weeks, if not longer than that, at the current time. But there was no way of knowing for sure just how long it would actually hold out, for neither side knew everything that their opponents had going on for themselves, of course. In the meantime, the assembling group was still getting together at The Dreamrose Cafe, which was now owned by Allen and Jessica Makashima Cadfael.
When the leaders of that group arrived themselves at the Cafe, Allen Cadfael, a black man now in his middle to late thirties said to one of them, "I see you all made it here in one piece, it seems, Shannon."
Shannon Wymond Naurbenz, a Caucasian woman not more than just a few years younger than him, and who had auburn hair that she still wore at about mid-back-length, if and whenever possible, in her life, said, "It seems so. We just got here from visiting the Dreamrose Municipal Cemetery and War Memorial, in fact. We also dropped by Dreamrose Labs to pick up a few things. I trust you have seen to the apparent evacuation of the remaining inhabitants of Dreamrose and of its local area to the other world by now as well, Allen."
"Yes, we have, Shannon. The last of them should be evacuated by local midnight tonight, at the very latest, I think. As soon as the town's apparently empty, the city's municipal defense system should kick in and be able to fully protect the town here well enough, it seems to me," said Allen, even as his wife Jessica continued to log in the arrivals of many of Dreamrose's still-present inhabitants in the Cafe.
Jessica Makashima Cadfael was a still-attractive Asian woman who was also just about Allen's age, and they'd been married to each other for almost as long as Shannon and her husband Rolando had themselves been married to each other, which was now roughly sixteen and a half years in Shannon and Rolando's case, more or less. But not more than about six months less, in any case at all, for Allen and Jessica, in fact. "Thanks to President Palin, that should most likely happen well enough, Shannon. It will be rather strange indeed not living around here so much for many of Dreamrose's inhabitants, I'm quite sure. But in order to most likely be able to hopefully save at least the town, if not the whole world, quite well enough, we're probably all going to have to be away from it much more than many, if not all, of us might really want to be in our respective lives, it seems to me."
"I really don't want to leave this town of ours either, if I don't actually have to here, Jessica," said a moderately tall black-bearded Caucasian man as he helped his and Shannon's 15-year-old twins Franklin and Elizabeth bring the last of their things that they were bringing with them to the other world into the Cafe here. "If I had any real choice in the matter, I'd stay here and help defend the town the next time the aliens came here to attack us and Earth, Jessica. But I don't. And neither do Franklin, Elizabeth, Shannon, and a whole lot of other people around here."
"Paddy told us this day would likely come, Rolando," said Shannon, as gently as possible here, as she referred to one of her ancestors who had died during the First Battle of Dreamrose in 2018.
"Yes, he did before he left this world behind like he and so many others did around that time. But that doesn't mean that I have to like it, do I, Shannon?" asked the frustrated man who was just about a year older than his wife.
"No, you don't. Listen, my dearest Rolando, I really don't like having to leave either. But if we don't actually do something major enough very soon here, Dreamrose, at least, if not also the whole world or the whole Sol solar system in at least this dimension, will then be destroyed totally within the next fifteen Terran years, it now seems to me here. Paddy made a prophecy to that effect the day before the First Battle of Dreamrose began. He said that the fifth time the aliens fought here in a major enough battle against us in Dreamrose and its local area, if we weren't actually strong enough in sheer numbers and in our fighting abilities, at least, if nothing else as well, at least Dreamrose, if not the rest of our world or our solar system, would then be destroyed by the space aliens. And destroyed to such a degree that its general area here on Earth, at least, short of a known divine miracle or intervention of sufficient power from God above, would be uninhabitable to such life as has been present in it for many long years on the Earth of this particular dimension. To save Dreamrose, at least, if not the rest of the world or the solar system, we must now apparently leave it for the other world we know of elsewhere in the Universe, at least temporarily, if not permanently. For if we don't, the aliens will most certainly come back, and we'll most definitely not be able to defend Dreamrose well enough when they do."
"What about the town and local area's known history, then, Shannon?"
"As we speak, elsewhere in Dreamrose and its local area, others are seeing to its security, before we all activate the necessary portals to the other world we're going to have to go to. Once we actually get the word quite well enough that all the other nearby evacuation places are ready enough for emptying out here, we'll then activate all the necessary portals and transfer ourselves to the other world just as quickly as possible. Hopefully, we then will actually be able to somehow evacuate all of the necessary inhabitants from around here before it's too late for us to do so at all well enough here. Cicero Clancy's various programs should kick in once all of us are apparently gone from Dreamrose and its local area quite well enough here. Unfortunately, we'll probably not be able to be entirely sure, or at least not for a while, if not forever, that they'll permanently keep the aliens from destroying at least Dreamrose, if not the rest of the world or the Sol solar system of this particular dimension, someday yet in the future. But perhaps it'll make it much harder, at the very least, if not totally impossible, for them to do just that or those things in it or them well enough, somehow, just the same, of course."
"Is there not a rather good chance that his various programs might quite considerably indeed actually jumble up at least the near future, if not also the foreseeable enough future, for everyone else who might be remaining on the Earth of this particular dimension, at least, if not the Sol solar system of it?" asked Rolando.
"Yes, there's a rather distinct possibility of that happening here, Rolando. But if we do nothing major enough at all here, Dreamrose, at least, will most definitely be destroyed just as Paddy predicted earlier, without a doubt. We all must evacuate in order to sufficiently enough rebuild the Dreamrose Legendary Order, it seems. We've actually taken rather heavy losses for it in this war between our enemies and our worlds' inhabitants. We must apparently abandon the place where we'd most love to be in our respective mortal lives to save it, from what I can currently gather. Many of our people are on the other world already, and they're expecting us to join them there as soon as possible."
"I see. And what about the remains of the now-deceased inhabitants of Dreamrose who are now buried in and around the local area from ever since its founding long ago?"
"They all will quite be safe from the attacks of the aliens. They never come into areas where they're present knowingly, if they can possibly ever avoid it at all in their lives. At least whenever there isn't actually a battle taking place close enough to wherever they might then be present, of course. It's like they fear what might happen to them if they do," said Shannon. "Now we have about four hours to see to the evacuation of all necessary Dreamrose-area inhabitants from this point in time, or we'll not be able to get out of the area in time, I think."
The next few hours, at most, were then spent taking care of whatever other necessary business had to be done in, around, and under the Cafe, for all the obvious reasons, by all the necessary people here in it. Eventually, everyone was then just where they had to be just before the evacuations needed to begin in and around the Dreamrose local area. At 11:15 pm, then, on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, all over Dreamrose's local area, the now-required evacuations then began as needed in it. By midnight, then, not a single inhabitant of Dreamrose or of its local area who could possibly be evacuated from it in any way whatsoever actually remained anywhere within about 30 or so miles of the Cafe, in any case at all. Not even Rolando, for that matter. All those inhabitants arrived on the other world no more than five or so minutes after that time, then, with the last of them being Rolando, Shannon, Franklin, and Elizabeth, in fact. After they did, the necessary programs kicked in automatically to hopefully be able to fully protect Dreamrose and its local area against any potential future invasions of the aliens that might ever take place in and around it, by the way. When they did, rather strange things began happening in and around the Earth and its solar system which had been rather unexpected indeed here. Even by Cicero and many members of his various expert scientific teams who'd proposed the aforementioned defense programs to one of the USA's former Presidents. Most specifically to former President Jacob Wymond, Shannon's own father, who'd actually served as such from January 2013 to January 2021, after having eventually succeeded Alan Keyes as the President.
Alan Keyes, who was now largely retired from active political life, had served as President of the United States from 2005 to 2013, after he himself had succeeded the now-deceased President Ben Nighthorse Campbell at that particular time in history. He himself had played a rather influential part in seeing that Shannon's father had eventually succeeded him as President of the United States. And he was now seeing to the necessary evacuation of many other people from all over Earth to various other worlds where they might possibly then be safe enough from attacks by the numerous space aliens that had first rather unexpectedly invaded Earth sometime during his second term. He'd also been at least the second, if not at least the third, overall black President of the USA on this particular Earth, after the long-ago service of President Frederic Douglass as such, for that matter.
President Sarah Palin had eventually succeeded President Wymond at the conclusion of the latter's second term as such, in the midst of considerable conflict. She'd eventually been able to help many other Terran nations actually force a cease-fire somehow on the many space aliens, who were rather upset indeed about not being able to then finish off all of the alien-known human race at that particular time. But before they left Earth again per terms of that unwanted cease-fire, they left it with several rather powerful parting shots, which included the rather total destruction of several major Earth cities such as Jakarta, Liverpool, Leipzig, and Hanoi, to name just a few of them, for that matter. Such places were quarantined almost immediately after their departures from Earth per the terms of the cease-fire then forced upon them by many Terrans and their various nations, in fact.
When those various programs finally kicked in well enough, the present Earth's history became quite fluid in its nature for yet-unknown reasons here. It'd probably be at least a few years, if not a long while, before it could again be rather rigid in its nature, if not totally that way. This was just because of the rather unexpected effects of them even as they kicked in wherever and whenever needed anywhere at all in and near Dreamrose, by the way.
The effects of those programs often included the rather sudden and rather unexpected transfers of many people from assorted times and places in this particular Earth's history to the other world where Shannon and all of her current companions had just gone, in fact. Just who those people were for sure was yet to be seen, but it was still the case that many of those very same people were brought there as just described, if not all of them.
End of Prologue