"DeBaptiste, Mike - Rick Raider 02 - The Search for the Eternal Flame" - читать интересную книгу автора (DeBaptiste Mike)

RICK RAIDER #2
THE SEARCH FOR THE ETERNAL FLAME

(c) 1980, 1999 by Mike DeBaptiste, all rights reserved
special thanks to TED MARKLEY, technical advisor


Chapter One: ALIEN INVADERS

"This game is totally nitro," Charlie Connors said excitedly. "Rick, there's another alien Grogg fighter coming on the screen. Frag that sucker!"
"Hurry, Rick!" pretty Sally Anderson urged from behind. "If you don't destroy that ship, it'll blast yours instead."
Rick Raider sat tensely in front of the computer in the den of the Raider home. His eyes were glued to the monitor screen where a supersonic chase through space involving two spaceships was being depicted. Rick was controlling one of the ships with a joystick. The other was an enemy ship just coming out from behind a protective force field.
"All right, eat red death, sucker!" Rick laughed, unleashing his hyperblaster. "It's curtains for you, buddy."
The roar of missile fire blared from the speakers as tiny rockets of flame shot from Rick's spaceship. They smashed into the enemy craft and there was a loud explosion as it disintegrated into a ball of fire. Color filled the screen as the debris floated into nothingness.
Sally grinned. "Ultra! Fragmented he is!"
"Too cool," Charlie agreed with a hoot. "Man, the graphics and sound effects on this game are the bomb!"
"Star Death is one of the hottest computer games on the market right now," Rick told his friends. "I downloaded it from the Internet last night. It sure is a challenge."
"I think all the computer games are really challenging," Sally said. "Even the simpler ones. It takes a lot of practice to play them well."
"They're fun too," Charlie agreed, nudging Rick's shoulder. "Come on, let me have a turn."
Rick checked his wrist watch. "We don't have time. Comp Sci class begins in twenty minutes. We have to leave for campus."
Charlie groaned, but a moment later his eyes lit up. "Hey, why don't we bring the game CD with us? Maybe we can play it in class. Professor Manning likes to show the class new games."
Rick nodded. "Good idea. It's so awesome the professor should really dig it." Rick had burned a copy on his CD-WRITER, and he pulled the disc from the drive.
"Isn't it amazing?" Sally said. "All the information for the game is stored on that disc. I'll never really understand computers and how they work. It's all so incredible."
"Totally," Charlie agreed. "And even more incredible, wouldn't it be something if some of these aliens we're always playing against actually came to Earth?"
Rick pressed the CD into its plastic case and pushed back his chair. "It sure would," he said as he stood up. "And if we're lucky, Charlie, they'll take you back home with them."
Sally groaned. "Rick! How could wish such a dire fate on those Groggs?"
Charlie made a face at them. "Go on, laugh all you want. I sure wouldn't mind going to outer space. Things have been pretty boring around here lately. It's time for some serious excitement."
Rick nodded his head, knowing what Charlie meant. Life had seemed pretty dull the last couple months since they'd gotten home from Canada where they'd had a really rip-roarin' adventure on the old Yukon gold trail.
He grinned at his friend. "If you're hoping for an adventure in outer space, dude, you'd better forget it. No Groggs are going to land here in Lake City and take you away with them."
A serious expression had crossed Sally's face, and the fingertips of one hand flew up to her forehead as her mouth dropped open suddenly. "Fellas, listen up a minute."
"What's wrong?" Rick asked, as Sally shivered and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.
There was an apprehensive look in her eyes, but she managed a tremulous smile. "You're gonna think I'm crazy, but I just remembered this. Last night a strange humming noise woke me up. It was coming from outside and I got out of bed to check it out. It was some kind of craft, flying low over the hills behind our houses, as if the pilot was looking for a place to land. I watched for a couple minutes, but just figured it must be an airplane flying low because of atmospheric conditions or something. I was so sleepy, I just shrugged it off and crawled back into bed."
"The sky was perfectly clear last night," Charlie said. "If the craft was flying low, it's because it was looking for a place to land." He looked at Sally for a moment. "Yow! Maybe you saw a UFO. And if it landed, there might be aliens out there in the hills right now. Maybe creatures like the Groggs."
The three friends all lived on the same road on the outskirts of Lake City. Behind their homes stretched a vast area of hills and forests known as the Kirtland Hills. The hills ran north to the high cliff-like shores of Lake Erie.
Rick Raider was not one to jump to conclusions. "Yah, right. I'm sure you'd love it, Connors, if aliens were out in the hills. But it was probably just a small airplane that needed to make an emergency landing."
Sally shook back her long blonde hair. "I don't know, Rick. It was pretty strange looking, now that I think of it. Nothing like an airplane. It was cigar-shaped and glowed, with rows of flashing lights all over it. I've never seen anything like it."
"Sure you weren't dreaming?" Rick asked.
"No way. It really happened. If I hadn't been so beat from studying all night, I would've called you right there and then to tell you about it."
"Don't worry, I believe you," Charlie said. He grinned teasingly. "You don't have enough imagination to think something like that up on your own."
Sally made a fist and went to punch him. "Ha! You have no idea the imagination I have when it comes to you!"
Charlie grabbed her arm. "Chill out, I'm just kidding. I believe you, and I think we ought to go up into the hills and investigate. Right now."
Rick started to laugh. "Sheez! You really are hungry for some excitement, aren't you?"
"Hungry?" Charlie rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "I'm starving, man. I'm suffering serious adventure-deprivation!"
"But, Rick, it's possible," Sally went on in determined tones. "Lots of people have seen UFO's, and many scientists believe there might be people living on other planets who have the technology to travel in space."
Rick sighed. "All right, I give. You two are letting your imaginations run wild. We can go look for the UFO after classes."
"Cool!" Charlie clapped Rick on the back. "If that ship landed in the hills, we'll find it."
Sally returned to her usual humor. "And when we do, Bozo, I will definitely ask the aliens to take you home with them."
"Okay by me." Charlie was not one to be bested. "It'd beat going to school in Lake City. I'm ready and willing to go to outer space."
"You're already pretty far out," Rick gibed, as they gathered their school books from the desk.
Sally winked at Rick. "Tell me about it. If he gets any farther, he'll be gone!"