Astrosaurs 10

by Steve Cole

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Warning! Think you know about dinosaurs?

  Talking Dinosaur!

  The Crew of the DSS Sauropod

  Jurassic Quadrant Map

  Chapter One: Invisible Attack

  Chapter Two: Prisoners of The Pirates!

  Chapter Three: A Fearful Fate

  Chapter Four: Escape to Danger

  Chapter Five: Falling Through Space!

  Chapter Six: The Venomous Splarg!

  Chapter Seven: The Golden Peril

  Chapter Eight: Deadly Discoveries

  Chapter Nine: “Attack all Plant-Eaters!”

  Chapter Ten: Hard to Swallow!

  About the Author

  Also by Steve Cole

  Copyright

  About the Book

  DINOSAURS . . . IN SPACE!

  Meet Captain Teggs Stegosaur and the crew of the amazing spaceship DSS Sauropod as the Astrosaurs fight evil across the galaxy!

  When several spaceships go missing, the astrosaurs investigate – and are attacked by terrifying Star Pirates! The greedy ship-looters have a plan that will wreck the galaxy. Can Teggs stop them in time?

  For Shannon Park,

  Teggs’s auntie

  WARNING!

  THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT DINOSAURS?

  THINK AGAIN!

  The dinosaurs . . .

  Big, stupid, lumbering reptiles. Right?

  All they did was eat, sleep and roar a bit. Right?

  Died out millions of years ago when a big meteor struck the Earth. Right?

  Wrong!

  The dinosaurs weren’t stupid. They may have had small brains, but they used them well. They had big thoughts and big dreams.

  By the time the meteor hit, the last dinosaurs had already left Earth for ever. Some breeds had discovered how to travel through space as early as the Triassic period, and were already enjoying a new life among the stars. No one has found evidence of dinosaur technology yet. But the first fossil bones were only unearthed in 1822, and new finds are being made all the time.

  The proof is out there, buried in the ground.

  And the dinosaurs live on, way out in space, even now. They’ve settled down in a place they call the Jurassic Quadrant and over the last sixty-five million years they’ve gone on evolving.

  The dinosaurs we’ll be meeting are part of a special group called the Dinosaur Space Service.

  Their job is to explore space, to go on exciting missions and to fight evil and protect the innocent!

  These heroic herbivores are not just dinosaurs.

  They are astrosaurs!

  NOTE:The following story has been translated from secret Dinosaur Space Service records. Earthling dinosaur names are used throughout, although some changes have been made for easy reading. There’s even a guide to help you pronounce the dinosaur names on the next page.

  * * *

  TALKING DINOSAUR!

  How to say the prehistoric names in this book . . .

  STEGOSAURUS – STEG-oh-SORE-us

  TRICERATOPS – try-SERRA-tops

  HADROSAUR – HAD-roh-sore

  IGUANODON – ig-WA-noh-don

  ALLOSAURUS– AL-uh-SORE-us

  DIMORPHODON – die-MORF-oh-don

  SPINOSAURUS – SPY-nuh-SORE-us

  AMMONITE – AM-oh-NITE

  PTEROSAUR – TEH-roh-sore

  MUSSAURUS – moose-SORE-us

  CARNOTAUR – kar-noh-TOR

  SAUROPELTA – SORE-oh-PEL-tah

  KENTROSAURUS – KEN-troh-SORE-us

  RAPTOR – RAP-tor

  * * *

  THE CREW OF THE DSS SAUROPOD

  Chapter One

  INVISIBLE ATTACK

  Way out in the dark depths of space, a stegosaurus and a triceratops were waiting in a rusty old spaceship.

  Waiting for someone to attack them!

  “This ship is total rubbish,” declared Captain Teggs Stegosaur. He tried to sit in a dusty chair but it broke beneath him and he landed on his bottom. “I never saw such a useless bag of bolts!”

  “Me neither,” agreed the triceratops, whose name was Arx. “The guns don’t work, the steering is dodgy, and the engines so weedy we could hardly outrun a space-tortoise.”

  “True,” Teggs agreed with a crooked grin. “It’s perfect for our plan!”

  “I just hope the plan works,” said Arx grimly, checking his space armour. “If it doesn’t, we are in big trouble!”

  Teggs checked his own battle gear and looked out of the window at the comforting egg-shaped sight of the DSS Sauropod. The Sauropod was the finest ship in the Dinosaur Space Service. Teggs was its captain and Arx was his deputy. The rest of the crew were still on board, awaiting their captain’s signal.

  He spoke into his communicator. “Teggs calling Gipsy. Are you there?”

  “Gipsy here, Captain,” came the reply. Gipsy was the stripy hadrosaur in charge of the Sauropod’s communications. “Iggy’s here too.”

  Teggs smiled. Iggy the iguanodon was his Chief Engineer and very handy in a fight. “Hello, Iggy,” said Teggs. “Any sign of enemy ships in the area?”

  “Not yet, Captain,” came Iggy’s gruff voice. “But we’ve boosted the scanners and are checking them all the time. If so much as a miniature Martian moth flaps anywhere near you, we’ll pick it up.”

  “I wouldn’t if I were you,” Teggs told him. “Those Martian moths can bite!” He started to chomp on a big pile of juicy leaves he’d brought over from the Sauropod canteen. The only thing bigger than Teggs’s appetite was his sense of adventure! But even he had to admit that it was a funny feeling, sitting in a parked spaceship just waiting to be attacked by forces unknown . . .

  “All right, everyone,” said Teggs through a mushy green mouthful. “Let’s run through the plan one more time. It’s vital we all know what we are doing here.”

  Arx cleared his throat. “We are here because several spaceships have disappeared in this sector. They were all small ships with hardly any defences, carrying big cargos of electronic parts on board. The ships have never been seen again – but bits of their cargos have turned up on other planets.”

  “And that can only mean one thing,” Gipsy added. “Those ships were hijacked, their crews were kidnapped – and anything valuable on board was sold off.”

  “It’s a terrible business,” said Teggs. “And we are going to put a stop to it.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Iggy. “We know that those sneaky crooks would never dare take on a ship as big and strong as the Sauropod. But if they spy a rusty old cargo ship like the one you and Arx are on, chances are they will pick a fight. You’re sitting ducks!”

  Teggs looked at the broken chair and sighed. “Or standing ducks, anyway,” he said. “So – what’s the plan, Gipsy?”

  “While your crummy craft stays parked in open space, we will hide the Sauropod behind the nearest moon and wait,” said Gipsy. “If anyone does show up and attack you, we will zoom out of hiding and catch them red-clawed!”

  “Very good,” said Teggs approvingly. He didn’t only have the best ship in space – he had the best crew too!

  “Captain!” said Arx suddenly. He tapped a grimy computer screen with his biggest horn. “According to these readings, we are moving.”

  “But we are parked in space,” Teggs argued. “How can we be moving?”

  “I don’t know,” said Arx. “But we are!”

  “Iggy,” Teggs snapped into his communicator. “Is there anything showing on the Sauropod scanners that might be affecting us?”

  “Can’t see anything, Captain,” Iggy reported. “No black holes or space tunnels in the area.”

 
; “Something is definitely pulling us away!” Arx insisted.

  Teggs knew Arx was right. He could feel strange vibrations under his feet. He looked out of the window, but there was nothing out there but space.

  He blinked, then gasped. Mysterious black smoke had started swirling around outside . . .

  “Iggy!” Teggs shouted. “Gipsy, can you hear me? It looks like we’ve been pulled into a cloud of smoke!” But his only reply was crackly static. “Uh-oh. Arx, we’ve lost contact with the Sauropod!”

  Arx joined him by the window. For a minute, the smoke cleared – and they saw a massive space station looming up ahead of them.

  “No wonder Iggy and Gipsy couldn’t see anything on the scanners,” said Arx. “That stuff out there must be a smoke screen that doesn’t show up on space radar. It hides our enemies from view while they drag spaceships into their lair!”

  Teggs nodded grimly. That sinister lair was built from blood-red metal and shaped like an enormous hook. As he watched, a big, dark doorway opened up to draw in their little spaceship.

  Etched in black above the doorway was a sinister symbol – a huge carnivore skull with two broken bones crossed beneath it.

  Arx gulped. “I recognize that symbol.”

  “So do I,” said Teggs. “It’s the sign . . . of the star pirates!”

  A shiver passed through Teggs’s long backbone. Star pirates. As a dino-tot he had heard so many stories about these scaly pirates of the stars – cruel carnivores that roamed space in search of ships to loot. Brave astrosaurs had hunted them down years ago, and so most were safely locked away. But some believed that the worst of the star pirates had escaped and gone into hiding – and that one day the devilish dinosaurs would return and take revenge on the whole Jurassic Quadrant . . .

  “Well, we wanted to be attacked, and we were,” said Teggs. “But our clever trap has backfired.” A fearsome thumping and banging started up at the little spaceship’s doors. “The star pirates have sucked the ship inside their space station, and now they’re coming to get us!”

  Chapter Two

  PRISONERS OF THE PIRATES!

  Suddenly the pounding at the doors stopped. “Work together, me hearties!” came a deep, growling voice. “We’ll charge that door on the count of three. One . . .”

  Teggs rushed over to the control room’s battered doors. “If the star pirates want to get in, who are we stop them?” he cried.

  “Two . . .”

  Teggs’s tail hovered over the door control. “Ready for action, Arx?”

  Arx nodded bravely. “Ready, Captain.”

  “Three!”

  Bellowing a battle cry, the pirates charged forward – just as Teggs opened the door.

  “Whoaaaa!” With nothing to block their way, the charging dinosaur pirates came tumbling into the control room, out of control. There were twenty of them at least, all different dinosaur breeds. And a right motley bunch they looked too – scabby and scarred, wearing tatty scraps of clothing.

  As the pirates milled around in surprise, Teggs whacked the broken chair with his tail and sent it flying towards them. It landed on the foot of an allosaurus, who yelped in pain. At the same time, Arx lowered his armoured head and charged through the bemused bundle. He gasped – they smelled like they bathed in old dung every day and washed it off with slug juice!

  “Good work, Arx,” said Teggs as they pelted down a dark metal tunnel. “So much for the star pirates – what a rotten lot!”

  But he was going so fast that he didn’t see a rope net lying on the floor. As he ran over it – WHOOSH! – it scooped him up and dragged him into the air!

  “Captain!” cried Arx. He stared helplessly at Teggs, dangling from the ceiling. But before he could do anything to help, a large golden cutlass was held against his horns.

  “So – a rotten lot, are we?” It was the same low, growling voice they had heard before – but now it was right in Arx’s ear. “Well, rotten or not, I reckons we have done for you two sonny jim-lads, and no mistake!”

  Up in his net, Teggs frowned. “Er, pardon?”

  “You are now helpless prisoners,” boomed the voice. “Your fate is in my claws – the claws of Spiny Jim and his black-hearted pirate crew!”

  Suddenly the lights switched on, and Teggs blinked. From up here he could see that he and Arx had blundered into a large metal wrecking yard, filled with broken-down spacecraft. This must be where all the disappearing ships had ended up – sucked in and smashed up by the star pirates!

  And there below, pointing his deadly golden sword at Arx, was the strange, sinister figure of Spiny Jim.

  The pirate captain was a spinosaurus. He had a face like a crocodile’s, with sharp teeth that seemed to be made of solid gold. A spiky, spiny sail of skin stretched down the length of his dark grey back. He looked every bit the pirate with his wooden leg, gold hoop earring and eye patch. His right eye was uncovered and glinted in the light – it was made from glass!

  A small pterosaur on his shoulder wore an eye patch too. “SQUAWK!” it cried. “You got ’em, Cap’n! You got ’em!”

  “Shut your beak, Pollysaurus!” snarled Spiny Jim. “You make my ear ache!”

  Suddenly, the other pirates came shuffling along with angry expressions on their faces. They were led by a mussaurus – usually a plant-eating dinosaur. But with a chill, Teggs saw that its teeth had been sharpened to white points, more suited to tearing meat apart than chewing leaves and grass. It had a hook instead of a hand and a red hanky wrapped around its head.

  “You messed up, Mutty,” scolded Spiny Jim. “But I got them for ye.”

  “That you did, Cap’n,” agreed Mutty the mussaurus.

  “How can you even see us, Spiny Jim?” Teggs shouted. “One eye is covered up and the other is made from glass!”

  “I lost me own eyes in a fight,” Spiny Jim admitted. “So I borrowed an eye from Pollysaurus here and stuffed it up my nostril!”

  He lifted up his big grey snout and Teggs saw a little red eye was indeed stuck there. “Eurgh!” said Teggs. “That’s disgusting!”

  “I said the same when he did it,” Pollysaurus agreed. “Well, actually, I said, ‘OWWWWWWW!’”

  Spiny Jim gave him a swipe around the head. “Shut up, you mangy dino-bird, or I’ll pull off your wings and stick them in my hat.”

  “But you’re not wearing a hat,” Arx pointed out.

  “Phew!” said Pollysaurus.

  “Look at our prisoners’ armour, Cap’n,” said Mutty. “They is astrosaurs, I’m thinking. Like them dreary DSS dino-dingbats who tried to put us all in prison.”

  “Wait!” Spiny Jim looked closely at Arx’s belt buckle. “Be that . . . gold?”

  “Er, yes,” said Arx. “So?”

  But the next moment, Spiny Jim swiped the buckle clean off Arx’s belt with his cutlass.

  “Hey!” Arx shouted. “I won that buckle at Astrosaurs Academy for being Brainiest in Class. It’s special.”

  “Of course it’s special!” cried Spiny Jim, holding it to his heart. “It’s gold! Ha-harr! Oh, I loves gold.” He started kissing the precious metal. “Gold, gold, glorious goldy-gold gold.”

  “Anyway, Mutty, you are right – we are astrosaurs,” Teggs shouted defiantly as the other pirates started to growl and hiss. “And prison is where you all belong!”

  A big “Oooooh!” of outrage went up from the pirates. One of them poked Teggs in the bottom with his sword.

  “Steady, lads,” said Spiny Jim, sticking the gold in his pocket. “These astrosaurs are going to make our dreams come true.”

  “What do you mean?” Arx demanded.

  “You is going to be held to ransom, me beauties,” Spiny Jim went on, waggling his cutlass. “Mutty, send a message to DSS HQ . . . Tell ’em that we will swap them the fine captain and his green tri-serra-plops for two of their new-fangled A-wave magnetrons.”

  “Is that all?” said Teggs, a bit put out. “Surely we are worth more than two A-wave watchamacallit
s?”

  “An A-wave magnetron is a new device that the DSS have been testing,” Arx explained. “It pulls precious rocks and minerals closer to the surface of a planet, making them easier to mine.”

  “That it most certainly do,” Spiny Jim declared. “And I needs two of them before I can put my master plan into action.” Teggs and Arx swapped worried looks as the pirate captain threw back his big grey head and laughed. “Them magnetrons will make me and my pirate band the richest dinosaurs in the universe. And thanks to you two, I won’t have to try and steal them – they’ll be delivered straight to my door!”

  Chapter Three

  A FEARFUL FATE

  Back on the Sauropod, Iggy and Gipsy were starting to panic. The dimorphodon, Teggs’s flight crew of fifty flying reptiles, were already in a flap, buzzing about the flight deck like mad mosquitoes.

  “I can’t believe that cargo ship just vanished!” Iggy protested. “One minute it was here, the next it was swallowed up by a big fat nothing!”

  “Poor Teggs and Arx,” said Gipsy with a sigh. “I hope they are OK.”

  Sprite, the leader of the dimorphodon, took time out from his furious flapping to give a heartfelt cheep.

  Then a loud beeping sound started up. The dimorphodon froze in mid-flight.

  “A message is coming through,” Gipsy cried, hitting a switch. “It might be them!”

  But it wasn’t. It was a message from Mutty the star pirate.

  “Avast there, ye astro-scum,” he began. “This is the star pirates calling. We has got Captain Teggs and First Officer Arx, and if you don’t do as we say you shall never see them again!”

  ‘What do you want, pirate-pants?” Iggy demanded.

  “We wants two A-wave magnetrons, me hearties,” said Mutty. “Leave them floating in space in Sector Twelve and fly away. We will be watching. If you do as you’re told, we will send your friends back to you in a shuttle.”

  “No,” said Gipsy. “Give us back Captain Teggs and Arx first, then we’ll give you the magnetrons.”

  “No way,” growled Mutty. “Leave them in Sector Twelve, like I say. If you don’t – or if you try to trick us in any way – you’ll never see your friends again!”

  Mutty’s laughter was so loud that Gipsy had to yank off her headphones. Then came a bleep that was even louder. “The pirates have stopped transmitting,” she said.