Speaker 1: He Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
I'm Martin, and you are listening to dad's bedtime stories. Tonight,
we're headed back into the Quantum universe, a universe in
which you find a quantum computer that helps you build
a three D printer, and that helps you build a
whole bunch of other cool stuff. I got a couple
suggestions that I think I'm going to put together in
this one, so let's check them out.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 3: My name is jose and I'm eight years old, and
I have a story request for the Quantum series where
you make a high tech suit and you use it
to defeat a trash bonser Bie. I love your podcast.
Speaker 1: Well, Josiah, that is a great idea, and since I
believe in some of the crossover episodes I did a
while ago that Quantum has some sort of mech suit,
we're going to have to put that in. I also
got this idea from Millie that I think could go
along with it. Let's check it out too.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Milly Orbustoilia. I want a suggestion
for quantum computer. When Samony hacks into Quantum and when
you say I think the quotum herennaws you.
Speaker 1: Perfect, Millie, and I believe that that is a great
invitation to introduce an antagonist or like a bad guy
into the Quantum universe, because you always need someone to
compete with to make a good story. If you have
an idea for Dad's bedtime stories in any one of
the universes we already do, or just an idea of
your own that could stand alone or even become a
new series, be sure to leave me a message on
speak pipe. It's my favorite way to get messages because
I can play your little voice clip at the beginning.
But if you don't want to leave a message, there's
still a Google form where you can write your ideas
and I always read that too. This podcast would not
be possible if it weren't for your ideas. And while
I can't make every single one, I do read and
listen to every single one, and they always inspire me
to do new things and they give me a good
idea about what the audience likes and wants. So please
keep them coming, with the permission of your parents, of course.
And now it's that time again, time for another possible
word from a sponsor in case we have one of
those did we have one? I can never tell if
we have one, because it kind of depends on where
you live. Now, it's time to close your eyes, get
as comfy as you can in that bed, and imagine
yourself doing what the kid in the story does. Imagine
yourself waking up in the morning inside your very own bed.
It doesn't take you long to remember Quantum. For a second,
you wonder if the whole Quantum thing was just a dream.
And then you suddenly hear a voice coming from your watch.
Good morning, Quantum says. You lift your arm and see
Quantum's little smiling face glowing on the watch. Good morning.
Anything happened while I was sleeping? Of course, several thousand things,
you blink, several thousand that is technically correct, or they
good things. Mostly that's not as comforting as you think
it might be. The ocean cleanup fleet continues to expand.
The mother sub has successfully printed additional collection units. The
underground base remains stable. The hover copters are fully charged.
The starship has completed its overnight diagnostics. Also, one of
the helper bots has attempted to make pancakes. You pause,
attempted to make pancakes. Yes, I have now banned that
particular bot from the kitchen. Oh well, I guess I
better go check everything out. You climb out of bed
and press the button on your nightstand once again. The
bed slide sideways across the floor with a smooth mechanical hum,
revealing a glowing metal hatch underneath. You open the hatch,
sit at the top of the shiny metal slide, and
push off. Immediately you shoot down into the tunnel. The
slide twists and turns through glowing blue light. Your stomach
jumps as it dips suddenly and then levels out, sending
you smoothly into the underground base, the one that Quantum
secretly dug and built beneath your home. You slide out
of the bottom and come to a stop on the
polished floor. The base looks even more complete than ever.
The launch bay is lined with hover copters, and of course,
the giant spaceship. The huge three D printer glows softly
along one wall. Helper bots float everywhere, moving tools, polishing panels,
welding things together, carrying energy tanks, and generally just doing
what helper bots do. It's kind of like watching a
small swarm of very busy metal bees. The living room
area looks even cozier. Now there's a soft couch and
the huge, huge Quantum TV still sits in front of it.
You walk over and see a plate, and on the
plate is a pancake, at least something shaped like a pancake,
only it's glowing for some reason. You look at Quantum's
main screen on the wall. Is this the pancake that
the helper bot made? Yes? Why is it glowing? You ask?
That is one of the reasons the helper bod is
banned from the kitchen. I'm thinking I probably shouldn't eat
that pancake. No, you definitely should not. May I suggest
using the food replicator instead? A little device lights up
along the wall, A food replicator, you ask. Yes, it
works in much the same way as the three D printer.
It takes matter and reorganizes it into the form of food.
Any food in my database can be recreated into something
edible that is exactly identical to the food itself. So
it turns garbage and stuff into food essentially. Yes, Quantum answers.
You move over to the food replicator and start flipping
through the screens. There's breakfast foods, lunch foods, dinner foods,
foods of all different kinds. You pick one of your favorites,
press enter, and glowing energy appears on the surface of
the replicator. It forms itself into a plate and then
into the food you ordered. You pick it up and
take a bite. It tastes well, actly like you'd expect
it to taste. As you eat, you turn to Quantum. Uh,
what do you think we should build today? You ask,
Quantum screen brightens. I'm glad you asked. Now that you
possess a starship, I believe it is time to construct
some personal exploration equipment. Personal exploration equipment, you ask, yes,
for example, a protective spacesuit or exoskeleton. You stare at him.
You mean like a mech suit. That is a less
precise term, Quantum answers, but yes, like a mech suit.
Speaker 4: Your eyes go wide, a.
Speaker 1: Flying mech suit eventually with super strength, of course, and
built in gadgets several and armor. Obviously, you grin so
wide your face almost hurts. Quantum, why haven't we built
this already? Because we had many other things to build first?
Fair enough, you say, A glowing blueprint appears on the
giant screen. Then the same design projects into the air
in the middle of the base, made from bright blue
lines of light. It's incredible. The suit stands taller than you,
but not so huge that it looks impossible to move.
It has powerful mechanical legs, reinforced arms, a thick chest
frame boosters on the back. The helmet looks smooth and rounded,
with a dark visor across the front. One arm has
a tool system built into it. The other has a
strange round device near the wrist, like a blaster of
some kind. Oh, what's that, you ask? That is a
multi purpose blaster. It can produce different kinds of beams,
including a freeze ray. You built a freeze ray into
the mech suit, You ask, Technically, I designed a freeze
ray for the mechsuit. It has not yet been built. Quantum.
You say, yes, I believe you should start building this immediately.
That is the plan. Quantum responds, However, I believe we
should test the starship's mobile fabrication system at the same time.
If you plan to explore space, it is important that
the ship can build and repair equipment away from the
underground base. So you want to take the starship somewhere,
collect material, and build the suit there. That is correct.
Where the screen changes to a map, a glowing dot
appears outside the town, past some old industrial roads and
a place you've never quite noticed before. This is an
abandoned garbage dump. Quantum says, you make a face that
doesn't sound very heroic. Many heroic things begin at disgusting locations.
I'm not sure that's true, Quantum, it is today. A
few minutes later, you find yourself climbing into the Quantum Starship.
You pass the rear fabrication bay, humming softly, with a
bunch of little helper bods locking into their docking stations.
Quantum appears on the cockpit screen as you sit in
the pilot seat. Ready, he asks. The launch hatch opens
above the base and sunlight pours in. You pull up
on the control and the starship rises smoothly from the
underground chamber. It lifts past the house and into the sky.
Is The hatch closes below, hiding the base as if
it never existed. You press the button to switch into
flight mode. As soon as you're high enough. The engines
glow and the ship blasts forward. You pass over forests, fields, roads,
and rooftops. Soon the town fades behind you. And the
land becomes rougher and emptier, and eventually you see it,
the abandoned dump. You pop back in to hover mode.
The dump stretches out across an old fenced off area,
crumbling concrete buildings and rusty metal towers, piles of junk everywhere,
old appliances, broken pipes, twisted metal, plastic barrels, tires, wires,
cracked machines, things that look like they might have once
been cars, and of course a whole bunch of sludge
sludge that was probably once sandwiches or something like that.
You lower the ship down over top of the dump,
scanning Quantum says as a soft blue light sweeps across
the place useful materials, detected metals, plastic, rubber, glass, wiring, electronics,
and several items that I strongly advise you do not touch.
We have everything we will need to easily repurpose into
a mechsuit. All right, perfect, Now activate the Starship collector.
You press a little button on the console and a
collector beam shoots down at the ground. A cone of
glowing energy shines outward, and pieces of junk begin lifting
from the piles. They rise into the beam, break apart
into shimmering particles and flow into the ship's storage tanks.
Inside the fabrication pay the printer comes to life. You
walk back to take a look. The first pieces of
the exo suit begin to form. You stand just outside,
watching with excitement as the helperbots fly back and forth.
They grab parts as they print and begin assembling them
on the platform. First comes huge legs. Long silver mechanical
frames lock together with blue glowing joints. Then the feet,
then the chest, framed the arms. The helper bots work
quickly snapping pieces together, welding them, tightening joints and connecting
glowing power lines and that sort of thing. This says amazing,
You say, thank you, Quantum replies, I thought it was
a good idea. The suit starts to look real very quickly.
Soon it stands on its own, though the chest is
still open and the helmet hasn't been attached yet. Then
something changes. At first, you see a light out of
one of the windows. You move over to take a
better look. You look at the ground, or around the ship,
or below the ship. As it darkens slightly, a strange
beam of purple green light shines down from the sky.
It's thin at first, almost like a laser pointer from space,
and then it widens. The lad spreads over the garbage dump.
A refrigerator door creaks open by itself. Quantum, I see it.
An old tire rolls across the ground. A bundle of
wires slides over a pile of scrap like a nest
of snakes. A broken washing machine rattles and tips forward. Quantum,
why is the garbage moving? I am currently analyzing that
that's not as good as already knowing. Pieces of trash
begin dragging themselves together. Metal pipes roll into place like bones.
Plastic sheets stretch across them like skin. Tires stack and twist.
Wires wrap around the whole thing like muscles. A washing
machine drum lifts up and locks into place near the top.
More and more garbage joins it. The pile rises and
rises and rises.
Speaker 4: Soon.
Speaker 1: Standing in the middle of the dump is a giant well,
a giant like garbage monster thing for lack of a
better word. Its body is made of twisted metal and
broken plastic. One arm is made of pipes and car parts,
the other is a huge claw of scrap metal. Its
head looks like an old machine drum with a jagged
mouth of broken steel. Purple green light glows in the
cracks between the pieces, and you take a step back.
H Quantum, Yes, I don't think that's normal garbage behavior. No,
the monster turns to war the starship. Then it charges
its huge feet slam into the ground, shaking the whole dump.
It swings one massive arm and smashes into the side
of the floating starship. The shield flashes blue and the
whole thing shakes. You fall over, shield integrity holding, Quantum says,
for now, the garbage monster hits the ship again. What
do we do, you ask? We cannot allow it to continue,
Quantum replies. The signal appears to be programming the garbage
into a temporary physical form. If it leaves this area,
it may threaten nearby roads, forests, homes, or citizens. So
we have to stop it. Yes, how Quantum and pauses.
Then the chest of the almost finished exosuit opens wider.
The main structure of the suit is operational. You stare
at it. You want me to use the mech suit? Yes,
but it isn't finished. No, it seems important that it
be finished. It's less important than being flattened by a
garbage monster. It is currently in working condition, though there
are improvements to make. Another huge crash shakes the ship
in the air. You run towards the suit. The helper
bods zip around you, making last second adjustments to the thing.
One of them attaches the helmet. Another locks a glowing
power core into the back. The chest frame opens up
like a giant metal rib cage. Please step inside, Quantum says. Quickly,
be ideal. You climb into the suit. The metal feet
close around your shoes. Mechanical supports wrapped gently but firmly
around your legs. The arms fold around your arms. The
chest plate locks in place. The helmet lowers over your head,
and for a second, everything goes black. Then the display
lights up. You're suddenly looking through the suit's eyes. Somehow, numbers, maps,
and glowing outlines appear across your vision. You can see
the garbage monster, the inside of the spacesuit, the helper
bots flying around and out of the way. Movements sink initiated,
Quantum says. You lift your right hand, and the suit
lifts its right hand. You move your fingers, and the
suit moves its fingers. It's as if you are the suit,
more than as if you're controlling it. Oh, this is cool.
Please focus. The monster is approaching. You watch as the
monster approaches the ship and swings for another hit.
Speaker 4: You take a.
Speaker 1: Step forward and leap out of the back of the ship.
The suit flies through the air and lands on the
ground in front of the garbage monster. The ground shakes
beneath your metal feet. The garbage creature swings and you
duck barely in time. It scrap metal fist roars over
your head and smashes into a pile of old appliances
behind you. Martial arts assistance activated Quantum says, martial arts
is sense. You say, basic defensive movement patterns are built
into the ship. They should help you. The monster swings again,
but this time your suit moves almost before you think
about it. You block with your left arm. Metal crashes
against metal. The impact shakes through the whole suit, but
you stay standing. Then you punch your giant mechanical fist
slams into the monster's chest. Garbage explodes outward. A hubcab
flies into the air, A toaster spins past your shoulder.
Something that might have once been a lawn chair clatters
across the dirt. The creature stumbles back and roars with
a really strange sort of grinding sound. More trash rolls
in from nearby piles and attaches to its body, filling
the holes you just made. Oh come on, you say,
the signal is allowing it to reform. Quantum explains, you
must disable it more completely. The monster charges again. You
run toward it. Running in the mech suit feels strange
at first, but the suit honestly does most of the work.
The legs pump powerfully. The ground thuds beneath you, and
you leap. The boosters on your back flare for a second,
launching you higher than expected. You slam into the monster's
shoulder first. Both of you crash into a pile of
old tires. You roll, push yourself up and grab one
of the monster's pipe arms with both hands. The suit's
strength surges, You pull, and the arm rips free in
a shower of wires and bolts. The monster smacks you
with its other arm. You fly backward and land hard
on your back. Only somehow it doesn't hurt at all.
Damage minimal, Quantum says. You groan and push yourself up.
The creature is already rebuilding its arm. Uh, Quantum, I
don't think punching is working fast enough.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 1: Freeze Ray is now online. A panel opens on your
right arm. A glowing blue emitter slides forward. You lift
your arm and a crosshair appears in your helmet display.
Try to aim for the center of the mass, Quantum says.
You point at the garbage creature and pull the trigger mentally.
A brilliant blue beam blasts from your arm. It hits
the monster in the chest, and frost spreads across the garbage.
The monster slows. You fire again, weeping the beam down
across its legs. Ice crawls over the metal and plastic,
freezing the creature to the ground. It strains against the ice.
Garbage creaks and cracks. Now, Quantum says, you pull your
mechfist back, run at the creature, and punch as hard
as you can. Your fist slams into the frozen garbage monster.
For a second, not much happens, and then well the
creature shatters. Frozen trash bursts outward in every direction. Chunks
of metal, plastic, rubber, and ice shatter and scatter across
the dump. The purple green glow flickers once and then disappears.
Everything goes quiet. You stand there in the exo suit,
breathing hard, even though the suit did most of the work.
I think we did it, you say, yes, Quantum replies,
the physical construct has been disabled. Warning, Warning, Your smile disappears.
Oh what is it? External intrusion? Detected symbols flash across
your helmet display. The starship's lights flicker. Quantum's face appears
in the corner of your screen. But it's sort of glitching. Quantum.
Something is attempting to access my system. You feel your
stomach tightened. The garbage monster. No, the garbage monster was
only a tool. The signal is still active. The purple
green light flickers again across the ground, then across the starship.
Can you stop it? I am blocking the intrusion, Quantum says, However,
the signal is strong. It appears to be transmitting from orbit.
You look up through the helm advisor. Far above in
the blue sky, a tiny dark shape moves slowly across
the sunlight. Uh sat await, you ask, correct, it is
amplifying and producing the signal. What happens if it works
and hacks into you? That would be bad. Quantum answers, Uh, Okay, Well,
I guess we have to stop it. Then you run
over towards the starship and jump up in the air,
activating the booster rockets and landing in the little bay.
The exo suit opens up and you quickly climb out.
You race towards the pilot's seat and drop inside. All right,
let's go head straight for the satellite. I guess you order.
The starship lifts off and blasts straight up towards the sky.
The abandoned dump drops away beneath you as you take
control of the steering wheel, aiming straight up towards where
you last saw the little well the little black dot
far off in space. Clouds rush past, the blue sky
darkens and stars appear. Soon you find yourself in space.
Quantum highlights the satellite on the main screen. It doesn't
look like a normal satellite. It's dark, with broken panels
and strange purple green circuitry glowing through it. Bits of
metal and jump cling to its side, as if it's
been infected or well pulled together out of garbage. It
looks kind of corrupted or something. You say that is
an accurate description. A beam flashes from the satellite. The
starship shakes as the shields light up. Signal strength increasing,
Quantum says, struggling, Well, what weapons do we have to
take it out? Or whatever? I have connected these ships
freeze cannon, of course you have. You love freeze cannons,
don't you. A targeting display appears. You grab the controls,
line up the crosshairs and fire. The crosshairs turn blue,
and a massive beam of icy blue energy blasts from
the front of the starship and strikes the satellite. Ice
spreads across its panels. It begins to sort of flicker.
I suggest we now use the disruptor cannon, Quantum says,
and a different cannon pops out of the side of
the ship. The crosshairs turn red. You aim at the
frozen mass, pull the trigger, and a beam of red
energy shoots from the ship, blasts into the frozen satellite
and breaks it apart into thousands and thousands of pieces.
I believe the signal has dissipated. Good work. I suggest
we collect the broken pieces so they don't cause problems
down on Earth. A cone of energy reaches out from
the starship and begins pulling in the frozen satellite pieces.
Just like the garbage does. They break down as they
enter into little shimmering particles before flowing into the storage tanks.
What exactly was that, you ask, Quantum That is currently unknown.
I believe another entity, something smart and powerful like myself,
was attempting to disrupt our plans. I believe we should
return home for the time being. You press forward on
the throttle, turn the ship around, and blast down towards
the earth. Soon, the darkness around you is replaced by
a bright blue light. You pass through the Earth's atmosphere,
down below the clouds, and fly at incredible speed back
towards your home. When you see a familiar sight the
surroundings of your own house, you switch it into hover mode.
You gently lower the ship down beside your home and
the hatch opens up. The ship lowers inside, the hatch
closes over top, and you land with a small hiss
and a gentle thunk. The back hatch opens up and
you step outside. Immediately, helper bods begin well repairing anything
that might have gone wrong with the ship. I will
need to analyze this information. I suggest you get some sleep, okay,
you say. You head back for the bottom of the slide.
You step up on it, sit down, and a little
platform appears below your feet. Pushing you back up the slide,
around the little loops and into the center of your bedroom.
You step off of the little hatch, the bed slides
back in place, and you climb inside it. You pull
the covers up to your chin, close your eyes, and
you begin to just let the tension and your muscles
drift away. You start by letting go of any tension
in your arms, any tension in your legs, and with
each breath you sink down deeper and deeper into the mattress,
and your mind begins to wander off to thoughts of
new dreams, new adventures, and new things missed to print
in the future.
Speaker 4: Good Night everyone, nam.
Speaker 5: In New York. More Union, no no thing, no.
Speaker 1: Mo m.
Speaker 5: M one one mo
Speaker 1: M