Jordan loves building things.

When she was younger a family member gifted her a Meccano erector set. With this set you could build many different construction equipment models. She built everything that had plans supplied with the kit. After she built the various cranes, dozers, and dump trucks something clicked in her brain and she could imagine even more things to make.

Jordan could see these designs in her head, in all three dimensions. She built helicopters, articulated trucks, a tractor and harvester. Her final creation with this set was a very complex robot that could walk a few steps before the string and pulley clockwork that made it possible had to be rewound.

Meccano was fun, but limiting. Jordan wanted more, and needed to build things with practical value. To do this she needed allies.

***

She demonstrated her robot at school to the robotics club. This club consisted of a group of nerds that probably will rule the world one day. They loved her robot and she was invited to be a member.

They won a national competition with a more advanced robot they built using Jordan’s ideas. This machine could walk for real, bend at the knees, pick things up, and move it around as instructed. Some of the nerds were genius coders and electrical control wizards. This robot did not need string and pulley clockwork to be ambulatory.

Her fellow robot club members introduced her to a vast online community of nerds that probably already ruled the world. Here many ideas and plans were shared, and builders and creators all over the world showed of their stuff. Jordan spent hours browsing other people’s designs and dreams. It was absolutely amazing to see just how diverse these ideas were.

One evening while studying someone’s work, she received a direct message from someone named #notanalien. It was peculiar, all typed in lowercase with no punctuation.

’hello young human female we are not an alien we have a proposition for you to build best ever three dimension puzzle we give plan you make and assemble are you interested’.

Of course she was interested. She responded in kind.

’hello you who are not an alien i love puzzles and want to see your design before i decide’.

There was a few more lower case only exchanges before sample designs for a few parts showed up. They were fantastic, incredibly detailed and out of this world. Each part had several data files with detailed drawings and lots of measurements. Animations showed cross sections of each part. She will need the help of the robotics club. Some serious software will be needed to get these 3D printed.

Jordan was given an address, some PO Box in Chicago, with prepaid labels to send the completed parts for inspection. There was never any talk about compensation. Jordan did not even think about it, all she wanted was to build these strange looking but beautiful parts.

The robotics club did not need convincing, the quality of the specifications was enough to get them onboard. It took a few days to program the instructions for Jordan’s 3D printer, but once that was done the parts were generated as fast as her printer could work.

The constructed items looked even weirder in reality. They would not fit together in any way, and was probably not meant to. These things seem to be a test of the team’s ability to follow instructions. The parts are packed and shipped.

Six days later a wooden crate was delivered to Jordan’s house, addressed to ‘jordan of earth’. Her mom had to sign for it. An envelope was taped to the top. It was a printed message, all in lowercase, expressing satisfaction with the samples. The crate contained a larger 3D printer, and many containers of resin. The letter explained that this was a larger printer, specialized for this task, and that it was theirs to keep when they complete the puzzle.

The crew wasted no time. They unpacked the printer and marveled at its size, and could not believe how light it was. Setup was simple and once the resin was loaded, they turned it on. It flashed and beeped and burped and announced itself ready.

The computer genius of the group connected his laptop and the work began. A 3D printer uses a simple programming language. Certain commands control priming and heating of material and other components, and the rest specify how the print head moves in three dimensions, and when to deliver material. The key is the sequence of these commands. Solid objects are easy to program, but the pieces they are about to build are filled with cavities and paths connecting those.

The resin was peculiar. It was two different kinds of liquid. When mixed together these produced the material that the printer head extruded, forming lines that are layered to form solid objects. The containers were sealed and screwed in place. They could not sample it, but when they shook the containers, they could hear the liquid slosh around inside.

After Bert got his software ready work started on the first piece. The detailed specifications and measurements were pushed through a code generator they built themselves, and after a few hours of crunching the printer was used for the first time.

Watching a 3D printer work is similar to watching paint dry, a total waste of time. This particular printer did not have transparent sides anyways, so there is nothing to see. The crew left the printer to do its thing while they browsed through the designs of all the different parts, trying to divine what the end result will be.

To their collective surprise the printer beeped success a few hours later. It was incredibly fast! The resulting piece was removed and passed around. It was beautiful! A fragile looking construction with many different pathways and chambers, feather light but incredibly strong. Its purpose unknown, unguessable.

During the next week several pieces of this 3d puzzle were constructed and laid out next to each other. Building a puzzle requires a picture of the final product. They had none. After the final part was examined and compared to the rest, they still had no idea how to assemble it.

While the group was moving parts around, fitting them together to try and solve the puzzle, the printer unexpectedly beeped completion. It produced another part, something they did not initiate. As soon as they saw it they knew how to assemble the puzzle. This extra part was the centerpiece, a spherical polyhedron, basically a soccer ball where each of the sections were perfectly shaped to accept one of the parts.

They ordered pizza and the assembly process began. None of them questioned the purpose of this construction, it was just a puzzle to solve, and they were very curious to see the final product.

Assembling the pieces took longer than anticipated. The differences between some of the parts was so minuscule that it took hours. Not only did the parts connect to the core, but they connected to each other. The right part in the right place just snapped together effortlessly.

Finally it was done. It was shaped like an egg with a flat bottom, sitting at an angle. Its surface was dimpled like that of a golf ball, and it had a single opening at its highest point. The opening was threaded, like something needs to be screwed in there. Feeling inside the opening revealed it was closed off, and closer examination revealed perforation.

They messaged completion of the object, including a few pictures, and got an immediate response; ’you did it it is beautiful final part on its way thank you’.

Two days later a smaller crate showed up, containing three canisters marked with the numbers one, two and three. Each canister had a red led illuminated below the printed number. Instructions were included. They have to connect these canisters in numerical sequence to the opening, allowing the contents to empty into the object. The led will turn green when the canister is empty. Once that is completed the puzzle will be done.

For the first time since they started this effort, the team was in disagreement. Building this thing was one thing. Filling it with unknown chemicals was something altogether different.

They ordered more pizza and debated their next step. Sometime during this discussion Jordan got up, and screwed the first container into the threaded hole. The object lit up, projecting a constellation of stars against the walls, ceiling and floor. The light adjusted and the points of light moved until it hung in midair, like stars.

Everyone stared with their mouths open. After a few moments someone spoke up, suggesting that the other containers be used. Jordan grabbed the number two container while someone else unscrewed number one.

With number two in place a big orange sun appeared, buried halfway in the far wall. Several planets were hanging in the air, extending diagonally across the room. Lines were rendered describing their orbital path. The sun was pulsing, somehow it managed to appear unhealthy. Someone turned the overhead light off, someone else closed the blinds. No one spoke. They were looking at a 3D projection of a solar system.

The third container was screwed into place, and the image zoomed in on one of the planets. The detail was incredible. You could see continents, blue green oceans, and three moons orbiting this world. Large parts of the moons were missing, and massive craft were moving away from the planet, accelerating away from the sick star. When the last ship passed through the far wall a message appeared in the middle of the room.

’thank you see you soon can’t wait to meet you in person’.

The orange sun started to expand slowly, then rapidly ballooned outwards consuming all the planets around it before collapsing on itself, forming a black hole.

The projected image disappeared, the object dark again. It hummed softly, and light filtered between the various parts. The parts fell away like egg shell, most of its insides gone. The soccer ball hung in the air, a soft blue light shone from inside it. It moved to the widow, and hung in the air, pulsing rapid flashes of bright light.

Nobody can ever say this robotic club has slow members, they all knew instantly that it wanted out. The blinds were retracted and the window opened. The sphere rotated once, like it was taking a last look, then swooped out the open window and shot up into the sky.

The sphere expanded as it headed out of the atmosphere into space, glowing brilliantly. At some point it stopped and its brightness increased, becoming visible from earth as a bright ring larger than the moon.

Telescopes and other optics trained on its position, and the world witnessed massive oblong craft emerge through this portal of light. Many smaller craft streamed from the larger ones and headed to earth.

***

These beings were truly not alien. They were human, or at least human looking. They had to leave their home world when it was discovered that their sun was dying. They knew about earth from one of the many probes they sent to look for a new home. This probe observed our planet from a safe distance, and it was used to ask for help.

Many of earth’s people were approached, some to build the 3D printer, various others to fabricate the resins and the last three marked containers. Jordan and the rest of the robotics club were the first to successfully pass the selection process. They were then given all that was needed to fabricate and activate the portal.

They chose this stealthy approach knowing governments and corporations cannot be trusted. Many of their own people died due to the chaos and bureaucracy that preceded the destruction of their home world, caused by these institutions.

The many small craft that was deployed to earth were destroyers, and these were strategically positioned to keep earth’s governments and armies in check. Only a few buildings and military bases had to be destroyed, and when it was discovered that all the nuclear installations globally were off line the authorities backed down.

The new arrivals wasted no time. Mining of our moon and planet had to start immediately. More ships were needed to evacuate earth.

There were only seventy-five thousand years left to vacate before our sun goes supernova.

There might be enough time to save everyone this time, all they have to do was build fast.