by Steve Cole
“Send a reply, Gipsy,” urged Iggy. “Tell them we’ll give them what they want. We’ll get on to DSS HQ straight away and get hold of those magnetrons.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You mean you trust them to do as they say?”
“I don’t trust them a millimetre!” Iggy replied. He clenched his claws into fists. “But I’ve got a plan, Gipsy. We’ll get back Captain Teggs and Arx, you’ll see – and give these stupid star pirates a surprise they’ll never forget!”
Back on the star pirates’ space station, Teggs had been cut down from the rope net and was now being marched along a dark corridor. Arx was just behind him. Both of them had been stripped of their armour, poked by spikes and threatened with swords, and Teggs was getting very fed up.
Just then a loud beep came from Mutty’s communicator. He chuckled nastily. “’Tis a message from the DSS, Cap’n,” he rasped. “It says that they are dropping off the magnetrons right now. You will have them before this day is through!”
The crowd of pirates cheered at the news.
Spiny Jim turned to a large ammonite, which looked like a big swirly shell with something wet and nasty inside. It wore a little tank of water on its back and a diver’s mask to stop too much air getting in. “Go to the control room, Alan,” ordered Spiny Jim. “Set a course for Sector Twelve and get ready to suck in those magnetrons.”
“Aye-aye, Cap’n,” said Alan in a slimy, slithery voice. Then he rolled off down the corridor like a weird wheel.
Teggs gave Spiny Jim a stern look. “So – when are you going to let us go?”
Pollysaurus laughed, and Spiny Jim looked down his nose at Teggs – literally. “Let you go, me hearty?” The eyeball stuffed up his nostril narrowed. “Why should we?”
Teggs glared at the wicked pirate. “Because my friends are doing what you want! You have to keep your side of the deal.”
“Not likely, me old matey!” said Spiny Jim. “When I has them magnetrons, no one in the universe will be able to stop my terrible plans a-coming true!”
“Let’s eat ’em, Cap’n!” bellowed a pirate. Teggs and Arx looked at each other in alarm.
But Spiny Jim shook his head. “No, me hearties. I have a NASTIER fate in mind for these two space-swabs. They are going to . . . walk the plank!”
The star pirates laughed and cheered, and soon the shout went up: “Walk the plank! Walk the plank!”
“But the DSS might be tricking you,” Arx cried. “What if those magnetrons don’t work?”
“Right,” Teggs agreed. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep us alive as hostages?”
“Sense?” said Spiny Jim, turning up his nose. “Yuk! Do what you want, when you want, and never wash yer hands afterwards – that’s the star pirates’ motto!”
The pirates cheered and shouted their agreement. All too soon, Teggs and Arx found themselves shoved into a large, smelly, circular arena. The walls were high with large ventilators set into them, close to the ceiling. In the centre of the room was a deep, dark pit with a long plank hanging over it, like a diving board above a swimming pool.
Teggs turned to Spiny Jim. “Is that what you did with the crews of those spaceships you stole?” he demanded. “Made them walk your stupid plank?”
“Indeed it was, me hearties,” said Spiny Jim with relish. “For in the bottom of that pit lives the Venomous Splarg!”
Arx raised a bony eyebrow. “The who?”
“The Venomous Splarg!” roared Mutty. “It’s our pet. Our ever-so-hungry pet!”
A fearsome sound – part-roar, part-belch, part hair-raising howl – rose up from the bottom of the pit, and Teggs and Arx gulped.
“Onto the plank with ye, Captain Teggs!” Spiny Jim cackled. “It’s time to turn ye into pet food! Ha-harrrr!”
Teggs was pushed and shoved onto the wobbly wooden plank. He tried to turn back, but the pirates waved swords and clubs and hooks in his face, forcing him out further and further over the smelly pit. Another terrifying roar echoed out from under him.
“Off he goes, off he goes!” screeched Pollysaurus, hopping up and down on Spiny Jim’s shoulder. “He’ll soon be pieces of ate! SQUAAAAAAWK!”
Chapter Four
ESCAPE TO DANGER
Helpless in the grip of two pirates, Arx watched in horror as his captain was poked and prodded towards the very end of the creaking plank. He couldn’t let Teggs topple over the edge!
With a mighty roar, Arx swung his short, stiff tail like a club and whacked his captors on the back. They fell over with loud cries, and the other pirates turned round to see what was happening.
“Look at me!” Arx yelled, butting aside an allosaurus. “I’m escaping!” He ran off, skirting the edge of the pit as he raced for a set of doors on the other side of the circular room. “Catch me if you can!”
Spiny Jim snapped his gleaming jaws together. “Catch that three-horned fool, me hearties! NOW!”
A dozen star pirates rushed to obey – leaving Teggs alone and perched at the end of the plank. He thought fast. Arx had bravely bought him time, and he had to make good use of it. But where could he go? The Venomous Splarg lay below him, Spiny Jim and Mutty were blocking his way back . . .
“Looks like the only way is up!” Teggs yelled. Taking a deep breath, he bounced up and down on the end of the plank, just like a diver on a diving board. Then, with all his strength, he took off into the air like a spiky orange missile!
“Catch the sticky-saurus too!” roared Spiny Jim.
Teggs went zooming upwards, spinning his long tail behind him like a propeller. He just managed to grab hold of a ledge in the curved metal wall. Below him, the pirates were shouting angrily and waving their claws. But that was good – because while they were doing that, Arx was able to make his getaway. The triceratops lowered his head and charged the double doors, knocking them right off their hinges.
“Keep running, Arx!” Teggs yelled. “I’ll join you soon!”
“The only thing you’ll be joining is bones in the Splarg’s stomach, Teggs!” growled Spiny Jim. “Bring him down, Mutty.”
Mutty pulled a laser gun from his pocket and opened fire!
Teggs gasped as deadly red laser beams started zapping into the wall all around him. The metal began to smoke and sizzle – and he knew that he would be next, unless he could reach one of the air vents above . . .
“It’s time to climb,” Teggs decided. Daringly, using the spikes on the end of his tail as hooks, he started to pull himself up the wall. The holes that Mutty was blasting into the metal were actually a big help, because they gave Teggs hand-and-footholds. Soon he had made it up the mangled metal wall all the way to the air vents. The pirates roared with fury, and the room echoed with the stamp of scaly feet and wooden legs.
“Sorry to spoil your little plank party, ‘me hearties’!” Teggs shouted. “But I’m off!”
“There’s no escape for ye, Teggs!” warned Spiny Jim. “Pollysaurus – fetch!”
With a menacing squawk, the one-eyed pterosaur flapped off from Spiny Jim’s shoulder. Teggs quickly tore the cover from the air vent and ducked inside. He found himself in a round, rusty tunnel, and was about to dash down it when he stopped.
“Why am I running from a pirate’s pet pterosaur?” he wondered. “I’m fifty times bigger than he is!”
Pollysaurus flapped about outside the air vent, glaring at Teggs through his single eye.
Then, without warning, he lifted his bottom and fired a dung pellet!
“Ow!” cried Teggs as the missile whacked him on the leg and started to steam. At once the air filled with the smell of cabbage and rotten eggs, and Teggs choked. “Ugh! That dung is totally toxic!” He turned to run and another potent pellet popped out of the pterosaur’s bot and splatted on his back. This one smelled even worse. “What a stink!” Teggs gasped. “Much more of this and I’ll pass out!”
Pollysaurus gave a sinister squawk of satisfaction. “Plenty more where that came from!” he promised.<
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Holding his breath, Teggs staggered off down the tunnel with the pellet-popping pirate-pet hot on his heels.
Meanwhile, Arx was still running along the blood-red corridors of the star pirates’ space station. Only a few of the pirates were following him: the allosaurus he had barged aside, and two carnotaurs – one with a wooden leg, and one with two wooden legs and a wooden tail. Luckily, neither was a very fast runner, and there wasn’t room for the allosaurus to push past them.
As he galloped along, Arx looked around hopefully for a hiding place. At last, turning a corner, he found a large black door to his left. He bundled inside as fast as he could and closed the door behind him.
It was dark in the room, but Arx could hear the pirates approach – scamper-scuttle-THUD, scamper-scuttle-THUD. He crossed his horns for luck . . . and the pirates carried on past the doorway. Phew!
Arx flicked on the light switch and saw that he was in a large storage area. Several crates were clamped to the floor and there was a hatch in the wall directly opposite. LOADING BAY FOUR was written on it in big black letters.
“This must be where the star pirates take in small deliveries direct from outer space,” Arx guessed.
He was about to nip back out into the corridor and see if he could get back to Teggs, when a loud clanking noise came from the black door. It had locked itself shut!
“Attention,” said a calm computer voice. “Hatch opening. Sucking in magnetrons. Repeat, magnetrons coming aboard.”
“Oh no!” Arx cried. “If that hatch opens, all the air will be sucked out into space – and me along with it!”
He tugged on the black door with all his might, but it wouldn’t open. Behind him, the thick metal hatch was already grinding open. Sure enough, air began to be sucked out of the loading bay. It howled past Arx’s ears, faster and faster. He held on tight to the door handle, but already his grip was starting to slip.
Arx gulped. If he couldn’t cling on, he would be dragged out to his doom in the airless wastes of space! Through the hatch he could see the billowing black smoke that kept the star pirates’ space station hidden from view. Then two big metal tubes came tumbling inside.
“The magnetrons,” Arx gasped.
Powerful clamps came out of the floor and held the metal tubes firmly in place. Arx felt his head start to spin as the last of the air rushed out. “Sorry, Captain,” he whispered. “I can’t hold on any longer.”
Arx let go of the handle and went flying backwards towards the open hatch . . .
Chapter Five
FALLING THROUGH SPACE!
Just as Arx was about to burst through the smoke and go spinning into space, two hands grabbed hold of his feet and held on tight.
Arx looked back in amazement – and saw that Iggy and Gipsy were leaning out of the magnetrons! They were wearing spacesuits and trying not to get sucked out themselves.
Then a little pterosaur – also in a spacesuit – flapped desperately over to the hatch and pressed a button. It was Sprite, the dimorphodon leader! The hatch closed again and air started to rush back into the loading bay.
“Loading bay sealed,” announced the calm computer voice.
Arx collapsed to the floor. Iggy and Gipsy scrambled out of their metal tubes and crouched beside him. Sprite perched on his head and cheeped.
“Are you OK, Arx?” Gipsy asked worriedly, pulling off her space helmet.
Arx smiled weakly. “I am now that you are all here.”
Iggy grinned. “We decided to hide inside the magnetrons and give these star pirates more than they bargained for!”
Gipsy nodded. “With their space station hidden by that special smoke, we knew it was the only way to find you.”
“Best of all,” said Iggy, “Sprite has got a transmitter stuck to his spacesuit so the Sauropod will be able to track us!”
Sprite proudly tapped the top of his little space helmet with his wing. But then he gave a squawk of despair, and started chittering at Gipsy.
“Oh no,” she wailed. “The transmitter has gone. It must have fallen off Sprite’s suit when he flew over to the hatch – and now it’s out in space!”
“So the Sauropod won’t be able to find us after all.” Iggy sighed. “Where’s Captain Teggs?”
“I’m not sure,” Arx admitted.
Suddenly the black door clanked loudly.
“Quick, someone’s coming,” hissed Gipsy, and all four astrosaurs dived for the cover of the nearby crates.
Mutty entered the bay with a couple of battered old loading droids – even the robots wore eye-patches on this space station! He inspected the magnetrons, then spoke into a communicator built into his hook. “Mutty here, Cap’n. The DSS have sent a pair of tip-top working magnetrons.” He chuckled. “They’ll be hopping mad when they don’t get their astrosaurs back in return!”
‘They’ll soon have more to worry about than that,” Spiny Jim’s voice rattled from the communicator. “Much more.”
Mutty grinned. “Even so, Cap’n, I’ll feel happier when them astrosaurs is captured again.”
“My Pollysaurus will soon stink the sticky-saurus out of them air vents,” Spiny Jim declared. “As for the tri-serra-plops, why – I’ll pluck out his horns and grind them into my porridge before this day is done!”
The pirates burst into deep, nasty laughter.
“Connect the magnetrons, me hearty,” Spiny Jim went on. “Soon we shall be ultra-super-mega-rich – and the Jurassic Quadrant will lie in ruins!”
With a final snigger, Mutty gave a signal to the droids and they carried the magnetrons out of the loading bay.
Once they had gone, Arx peeped over the top of his crate, holding his horns protectively. “All right,” he said quietly, “here’s what we do. Iggy, you and I will follow Mutty and learn what the pirates are up to with those magnetrons. Gipsy – I think I passed a ventilator grille in the corridor outside. You and Sprite must get into the air vents, find Captain Teggs and stop that pongy Pollysaurus!”
“Got it,” said Gipsy, and Sprite nodded his head. “We’ll use our communicators to keep in touch.”
Quietly, the astrosaurs crept from the loading bay and set off on their separate missions.
High, high above in the space station’s maze of ventilator shafts, unaware that his friends were on their way, Teggs was still busy dung-dodging. He kept trying to thwack Pollysaurus with his tail, but every time he turned to aim, the pterosaur bombarded him with bottom-bullets. The air in the tunnels smelled worse than a raptor’s pants.
“Surrender, sticky-saurus,” jeered the dino-parrot, flapping overhead, “and maybe then I’ll stop.”
“I’ll never give up!” Teggs promised, crashing on through the metal pipeline.
Then suddenly he came to a wall of black fog.
“The space station’s smoke-screen supply,” he realized. “Spiny Jim must pump it out of these air vents to top up the shields whenever he needs to.” He turned to face Pollysaurus with a grin of triumph. “And if this stuff hides your space base from prying eyes, it will hide me too!”
Dodging a last dung pellet, he dived into the thick smoke. He heard Pollysaurus screech with frustration – but the pterosaur didn’t follow him. “You haven’t heard the last of this,” it squawked, flying away. “Spiny Jim will get you, just you wait!”
Ha, thought Teggs. But his relief didn’t last long. As soon as he tried to breathe in the smoke, he started choking and coughing. “Ugh!” he spluttered. “This stuff tastes terrible. It’s probably poisonous!”
Teggs stumbled on through the black smoke. His eyes were burning and his throat felt like it was on fire. Surely one of these shafts would lead him out of the smoke and into fresh air again?
WHAM! Teggs walked into something metal. Waving his tail about to clear some of the smoke, he saw he had wandered into a large, rusty lift. “Must be an old service lift,” he said, peering at the controls. “If I take a trip down a few floors, I’ll get out of the smoke and stand a ch
ance of reaching Arx!”
Teggs hit the fourth button down. First the doors squealed shut. Then, with a scraping, scrunching noise, the lift began to move.
Slowly at first . . . Then a little more quickly . . . And then suddenly it plunged downwards!
“The lift is out of control!” Teggs gasped as he felt himself falling faster and faster. “If I hit the ground floor at this speed I’ll be turned into stegosaurus jam!”
Chapter Six
THE VENOMOUS SPLARG!
The lift kept dropping. Teggs knew he would go SPLAT at any second.
Desperately, he smashed the roof open with his tail. Then he hauled himself out through the jagged hole. The dark lift shaft burned with bright white sparks as the lift scraped and skidded against the metal walls – and Teggs glimpsed a metal ladder running up one side.
“One last chance!” he muttered. As the ground came rushing up to meet him, Teggs leaped off the roof and grabbed for the ladder. The rusty rungs bent beneath his weight, but he clung on for dear life – just as the lift hit the bottom of the shaft and exploded!
Ka-BOOOM! The noise was incredible. Concrete crumbled and metal turned to mush. A purple fireball shot up from the wreckage, and Teggs felt the heat of it on his back. “That was a bit close,” he exclaimed. “Still – at least now I’m out of trouble!”
But even as he spoke, the ladder broke away from the wall.
“Oops!” Teggs shouted as he fell with a sooty clatter into the bottom of the shaft. “Ow. Now how am I going to get out of here?”
But then he realized that the explosion had blown a hole in the bottom of the lift shaft. There was another room on the other side. It seemed to glow with murky green light.
Suddenly, a terrifying roaring, belching, growling noise came from somewhere in the green gloom. Now Teggs knew exactly where he was. He had ended up in the bottom of the pirates’ pit after all – and that noise was the howl of the Venomous Splarg! Even now he could hear it, all big and squelchy, dragging itself towards him . . .
There was nowhere to hide and no way out. But Teggs wasn’t going down without a fight.