by Ray O'Ryan
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Ghost Stories
Chapter 2 Creep Show
Chapter 3 Game Time!
Chapter 4 Bad Luck?
Chapter 5 Haunted Hallways
Chapter 6 Bert to the Rescue
Chapter 7 Drake’s Answer
Chapter 8 A Ghostly Explanation
Chapter 9 Permission Granted!
Chapter 10 Hector, from Spektor
Operation Twin Trouble! Excerpt
About Ray O’Ryan and Jason Kraft
Chapter 1
Ghost Stories
Zack Nelson unrolled his sleeping bag on the floor of his friend Drake’s bedroom. Zack was at Drake’s house for a sleepover. It was Friday night, and Halloween was just a week away!
Zack felt a bit sad. Halloween had been one of his favorite holidays on Earth. But Zack and his family now lived on the planet Nebulon. On Nebulon, no one had even heard of Halloween!
“So you dress up in costumes?” asked Drake.
Zack had just finished telling Drake all about Halloween.
“Yup,” said Zack.
“And you go from house to house, and people give you free candy?” Drake asked in disbelief.
“That’s right,” replied Zack. “And we tell ghost stories too.”
“Ghost? What is a ghost?” asked Drake. “I have never heard of it.”
“How about I tell you a ghost story?” Zack suggested. “I think that’s the best way to explain what they are.”
“Sure, I love stories,” said Drake.
Drake curled up in his blanket. Zack turned down the light and pulled his sleeping bag over his head. He switched on a small astro-light and placed it under his chin. The glowing metal stick sent a weird shadow across his face.
Zack began his story.
“A family moved into an old house deep in the woods. On their first night in the house, they sat around their table for dinner. Wind whipped through the trees outside. The branches tapped against the windows. An owl hooted in the distance.”
Drake pulled his blanket around himself a bit tighter.
Zack continued, “‘Can you please pass the salt?’ the youngest daughter asked her father. But before her dad could move, the saltshaker rose into the air. It drifted across the table and landed right in front of the little girl.”
Drake’s eyes opened wide.
Zack saw that his scary story was working. He went on.
“Suddenly an old framed picture flew off the wall. It shot through the air and crashed to the floor!
“‘Ghosts!’ shouted the little girl.
“And that’s when they saw it: A glowing figure appeared above the table, floating in midair. The family could see right through it. Then it vanished in an instant!”
Drake’s expression changed from fear to something else.
Zack noticed and stopped his story. “Are you getting too scared, Drake?” he asked. “You don’t have to worry. Ghosts aren’t real. They’re only in stories.”
“Oh, I am not scared,” Drake said, “just confused. Now that I know what a ghost is. I am sure that they are real. In fact, one of them is a good friend of mine!”
Chapter 2
Creep Show
“Very funny, Drake,” said Zack. He switched off his astro-light and slipped it into his backpack.
“But I am not kidding, Zack,” said Drake. “Ghosts are real, and one is my friend. His name is Hector, and he can do everything you described: float off the ground, disappear, and—”
“Come on, Drake,” Zack interrupted. “Does your friend also happen to be imaginary?”
Before Drake could respond, Zack let out a huge yawn. “I think all this ghost talk has made me sleepy,” said Zack. He nestled into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes. “Night, Drake!”
* * *
The next morning, Zack had breakfast at Drake’s house, then headed home.
“Welcome home, Master Just Zack,” said Ira, the Nelson’s Indoor Robotic Assistant. “How was your sleepover with Master Drake?”
“We had fun,” said Zack.
Zack’s twin sisters, Cathy and Charlotte, were sitting at the kitchen table. They were munching breakfast and slurping boingoberry smoothies.
“Did you tell Drake . . .”
“. . . any scary ghost stories . . .”
“. . . from Earth?” the girls asked.
“I tried,” said Zack. “But right in the middle, Drake told me that he believes in ghosts! Can you believe that? Ghosts aren’t real!”
“Shhh. Don’t say ghosts . . . ,” said Cathy.
“. . . aren’t real! It’s like you’re asking them . . . ,” Charlotte exclaimed.
“. . . to haunt you!” Cathy warned.
Zack laughed. “Now that’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard!”
Their dad, Otto Nelson, walked into the kitchen.
“What’s the silliest thing you ever heard?” he asked. Then he spotted the girls’ drinks. “Ohhh, those look good,” he said before Zack could answer.
“Ira, I’d like a boingoberry smoothie too, please,” said Dad.
“Certainly, Mr. Nelson,” said Ira.
A few seconds later, a small panel in the kitchen wall slid open. Out came a bubbling purple drink.
As Dad sipped on his drink, Zack told him about the sleepover.
“Well, you know, Zack, some people believe in ghosts,” said Dad. “And that’s okay. Just like it’s okay that you don’t. Speaking of ghosts, I’ve got a special creepy old vivi-vid picked out to watch after dinner tonight. I know you kids miss celebrating Halloween. I thought this would be fun!”
* * *
After they ate dinner that evening, the Nelsons settled down in front of their sonic cell monitor. On the living room table sat a big plate of brick bark, a chocolate and plexu-nut snack that Zack had discovered on the planet Plexus.
“This is not going to be too scary for the kids, is it, Otto?” asked Shelly, their mom.
“Nah,” said Dad. “I watched this one when I was a kid.”
The vivi-vid began. A creepy old castle appeared on the sonic cell. Rain poured down. Lightning flashed.
Now THIS feels like Halloween, thought Zack.
Chapter 3
Game Time!
The next afternoon, Zack sat in his room playing Asteroid Blast on his hyperphone.
“Master Just Zack, Master Drake is here,” Ira announced.
“Thanks, Ira,” said Zack. He saved the game and raced downstairs.
“Hey, Drake. What’s zooming?” asked Zack.
“I ran into Seth earlier, and he told me that they have a ton of grape new games at the Starcade,” said Drake. “Do you want to go?”
“Yippee wah-wah, you bet I do!” cried Zack. “Starcade games beat handheld hyperphone games any day!”
Zack ran to the kitchen and told his mom where he was headed. Then the boys jumped on their bikes and rode the few blocks to the Starcade.
They stepped inside. It felt like they had walked into space. The walls and floor were black. Tiny points of light flickered on the ceiling like stars in the night sky. A glowing green arrow flashed on the floor.
“This way to the . . . STAAAAAR-CAAAAADE!” boomed a loud voice.
Zack and Drake both grinned. Then they followed the blinking arrow.
The two friends stepped into a huge room filled with people playing arcade games. Lights flashed. Bells rang. Buzzers buzzed.
Some voices cheered. Others moaned. Zack felt as if he could almost reach out and touch the excitement.
Soon, Seth joined them. “Hi, Zack,” he said. “Do you want to play this grape new game? It is called Zoom-ber! You get to race flying cars!”
“Sure!�
� cried Zack.
“I have played it already,” said Drake. “You play with Seth. I will meet up with you later.”
As Drake disappeared around the corner, Zack and Seth slipped into a booth. They took seats behind a large screen. Seth gripped the controls with both hands.
“You steer with the wheel,” Seth explained. “The right foot pedal makes you go faster. The left foot pedal slows you down. Ready?”
Zack nodded.
The screen blazed to life. Zack saw two flying cars on the screen in front of him. Zack controlled the yellow car. Seth controlled the red.
“GO!” Seth shouted.
Chapter 4
Bad Luck?
They zoomed along above a gleaming alien city. Zack stepped harder on the go pedal. His car sped in front of Seth’s.
The two cars approached a sharp right turn. Zack tried to twist his control to the right. But the wheel suddenly jerked out of his hand, and his car swung to the left. Seth took the turn smoothly and grabbed the lead.
“What’s wrong with this thing?” shouted Zack.
“Nothing, except that you are going to lose!” Seth shot back.
Zack readjusted his course. A few seconds later, his car was right behind Seth’s.
“Time to take the lead!” Zack said.
He pressed down hard on the go pedal. His car slowed down.
Did I step on the wrong pedal? Zack wondered. He looked down at his feet. He was stepping on the right one . . . but the brake was pushed down too! It must have gotten stuck!
Zack had fallen too far behind to catch up. Seth’s car flew across the finish line. The Nebulite won the race.
“Told you I would beat you!” Seth said.
“No fair!” Zack cried. “My car was broken!”
“Yeah, sure it was,” said Seth. “You are just making excuses. Do not be a sore loser.”
Seth headed off to play something else.
Zack looked around but could not find Drake anywhere. He decided to try another game.
Zack was excited to find an arcade-size version of his favorite hyperphone game, Asteroid Blast. He slipped into the game booth. The inside looked like a spaceship. Zack sat down. Screens lit up. Stars flickered all around him.
He gripped the control knob and steered his ship through space.
This is way more grape than the tiny hyperphone version. I really feel like I’m flying!
Suddenly a huge asteroid was right in front of Zack’s ship. He aimed the control knob. Gotcha! he thought. But as Zack pushed the purple trigger button, the control knob twitched to the right.
POW! POW!
Bright red energy beams shot from the ship. But the blasts flew right past the asteroid. And now the huge chunk of space rock was headed straight for Zack’s ship.
He pulled hard on the control knob. His ship turned out of the way at the last second.
Before Zack could catch his breath, another asteroid appeared. Zack tried to aim his laser, but the stick wouldn’t budge. He pushed the control knob hard to the right, hoping to dodge the asteroid. But he felt the control knob suddenly pull back to the left! It was like someone else was working the control!
Why is this happening? Zack wondered. Then the asteroid slammed into his ship.
BWEE! BWEE! BWEE! Game over! Game over!
Zack climbed out of the booth. He was frustrated and confused.
That’s when Drake showed up.
“Hey, Zack. Ready to go home?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Zack. “I’m tired of losing. “None of the games I played worked right.”
“Hmm,” said Drake. “They all worked for me. Maybe the games you tried are haunted! Maybe it was a ghost that was making you lose!” He chuckled.
“Very funny, Drake,” replied Zack. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Chapter 5
Haunted Hallways
That night, Zack replayed the games from the Starcade in his mind over and over. He knew he had made all the right moves. The games were just all broken. What other reason could there be? Ghosts? But he knew that was impossible.
The next day at school, Zack hurried to his locker. The sonic bell chimed in the hallway. Zack was running late for class.
He threw open his locker and grabbed his edu-screen. He was about to reach back in to get his gym uniform when his locker suddenly slammed shut.
Zack had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the locker door.
“Very funny,” said Zack. He looked around, expecting to see whoever had slammed the door standing there laughing.
But as Zack glanced down the hall, he realized that no one was near. He opened the door again, snatched the rest of his stuff, and raced off to class.
In gym that day, the students played a game of pulse-ball. Three players from each team tried to control a glowing metal ball. Then they tried to shoot the ball through a moving, flashing hoop that floated in the air.
“Over here!” Seth shouted, waving his hands.
Zack threw the ball to Seth. Seth jumped into the air and tossed the ball toward the hoop a few feet away. The ball glided smoothly through the hoop.
“All right! One for us!” cried Seth.
Zack gave Seth a high five, a favorite Earth move of Zack’s that he had taught his Nebulite friends.
Seth had the glowing ball to start the next play. Zack ran right under the floating hoop.
“Over here!” Zack shouted.
Seth threw the ball right at Zack. It sped toward him in a straight line.
This is going to be the easiest pulse-bucket of my life! Zack thought.
But just before it reached him, the ball turned sharply to the right. It flew out of bounds.
“What happened?” asked Zack. “It looked like someone knocked the ball away from me. But there was no one there!”
“Duh, you missed the ball, Zack,” grumbled Seth. “That is what happened. And it was a good pass too.”
Zack shook his head. He just couldn’t figure out what was going on.
Later at lunch Zack sat with Drake.
“How is your day going?” asked Drake.
Should I tell him about the locker door and the pulse-ball? Zack thought. Nah, he’d just say that those things prove he’s right about ghosts being real.
“Pretty good,” Zack replied. “How about you?”
“Grape enough,” said Drake.
Zack quietly ate the rest of his lunch, lost in thought.
When the school day ended, Zack headed back to his locker. He opened the door, then quickly closed it. He had hoped to catch whoever had slammed it shut earlier—just in case they were back.
No one was there.
Zack slipped his edu-screen and a couple of books into his locker. He was about to close it when his hyperphone floated from his backpack. Zack watched wide-eyed as the small device drifted through the air down the hall.
Zack ran and snatched the hyperphone out of the air. He slipped it into the side pocket of his backpack. Again, it drifted out and hung in the air in front of him.
Zack grabbed the phone again and then went back to close his locker.
Maybe Drake is right, he thought. Maybe ghosts are real!
Chapter 6
Bert to the Rescue
That night, Zack was unusually quiet.
“How was school today, honey?” asked his mom.
Zack shrugged. “Okay,” he said. He wasn’t ready to tell his family about the weird stuff that had been happening to him. And he certainly wasn’t ready to tell anybody that he was starting to believe that ghosts might be real.
After dinner, Zack tried to play another game of Asteroid Blast on his hyperphone. But he had trouble concentrating. His spaceship was soon destroyed in a collision with a giant asteroid.
“I have to talk to somebody about this,” Zack said aloud. “I can’t talk to Drake. I don’t want to tell my family. But . . . wait a minute. Bert! I can talk to Bert about anything.”
Bert wa
s Zack’s best friend on Earth.
Zack punched Bert’s galactic code into his hyperphone. Then a few seconds later a face appeared on the screen—a blue face with pointed ears. It was the face of a Nebulite.
“Oh, sorry, I must have entered the wrong galactic code, I was—”
“No, Zack. It’s me!” said the blue person on the screen. “It’s Bert! I decided to dress up as a Nebulite for Halloween! I was just trying out my costume.”
The two friends laughed. Zack had known that just talking with Bert would make him feel better.
“Well, you sure fooled me!” he said. “That’s a great costume! Did you know that they don’t celebrate Halloween on Nebulon? I’ve been telling Drake all about it.”
“Wow!” said Bert. “I’ll miss you this Halloween. When we went trick-or-treating together, it was always fun. Even if we had to take my little sisters along. This year Roberta and Darlene are dressing up as ghosts. It’s pretty great.”
“Ghosts!” exclaimed Zack. “That’s why I called you in the first place! This is going to sound really strange, but I think I’m being haunted!”
Zack filled Bert in on all the weird stuff that had been going on.
“But why would ghosts haunt you, Zack?” Bert asked.
“I have no idea,” said Zack. “Unless it’s because they got mad when I told Drake that I don’t believe in them.”
“Maybe. I wonder what the best way to get rid of them is,” Bert thought aloud.