Astrosaurs 3

by Steve Cole

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  WARNING!

  Talking Dinosaur!

  The Crew of the DSS Sauropod

  Jurassic Quadrant Map

  1 A Soggy Mission

  2 The Sinister Shadow

  3 Deep Down Danger

  4 The Monster

  5 A Strange Friend

  6 Hide And Seek

  7 A Toothy Riddle

  8 The Fish Factor

  9 Fin-ished?

  10 All Wrapped Up!

  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!

  A huge monster is on the loose in the seas of Aqua Minor, and the astrosaurs are sent to investigate. Teggs and the gang travel to the depths of the ocean, where unexpected danger lies in wait . . .

  For Annie and James

  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 of this book.

  Talking Dinosaur!

  How to say the prehistoric

  names in this book . . .

  TRICERATOPS – try-SERRA-tops

  STEGOSAURUS – STEG-oh-SORE-us

  BAROSAURUS – bar-oh-SORE-us

  IGUANODON – ig-WA-noh-don

  HADROSAUR – HAD-roh-sore

  DIMORPHODON – die-MORF-oh-don

  CRYPTOCLIDUS – cript-oh-CLIE-dus

  LIOPLEURODON – LIE-oh-PLUR-oh-don

  THE CREW OF THE DSS SAUROPOD

  Chapter One

  A SOGGY MISSION

  In orbit high above the planet Aqua Minor, Captain Teggs Stegosaur was waiting to start his next adventure.

  He was waiting very impatiently.

  “Admiral Rosso had better call us soon,” Teggs grumbled, chomping on the delicious moss that covered his control pit. “I can’t wait to find out why we’ve been sent to the soggiest planet in the Jurassic Quadrant!”

  “I’m sure it won’t be much longer, Captain,” said Arx Orano, the triceratops beside him.

  Sitting around twiddling his thumbs wasn’t easy for the young, daredevil stegosaurus. He didn’t have any thumbs, for a start.

  Teggs commanded the DSS Sauropod, the finest ship in the Dinosaur Space Service. He and his crew were all highly trained astrosaurs. They flew through space helping plant-eaters in peril – wherever the planet, whatever the risk.

  But why had the Sauropod been sent to a world full of fish?

  “Maybe Admiral Rosso thinks we need a holiday by the seaside,” said Iggy Tooth, the Sauropod’s Chief Engineer. A brave iguanodon, he was clever with machines and fiercely loyal to his captain. “I don’t really like the seaside. I’m not keen on fish. I met a fish with no eyes, once.”

  “That would make it a fish. Get it?” called Gipsy Saurine from her seat. Gipsy was a duck-billed hadrosaur with scaly, stripy skin. She handled the ship’s communications and much more besides. “Anyway, there is no seaside on Aqua Minor. Only sea!”

  “Calling Captain Teggs . . .” The gruff voice of Admiral Rosso, the crusty old barosaurus in charge of the Dinosaur Space Service, suddenly crackled from the Sauropod’s speakers. “Captain Teggs, can you hear me?”

  “At last!” spluttered Teggs through a mouthful of moss. He rose up from the control pit – eight metres long from tail to beak, with jagged bony plates running down his orange-brown back.

  Gipsy trotted over to Teggs. “Shall I put the admiral on the scanner screen, Captain?” she asked.

  “Yes please,” said Teggs.

  Gipsy whistled the order through her snout to the dimorphodon. These plucky pterosaurs were the Sauropod’s flight and they loved to be bossed about.

  The team leader flapped down and pecked scanner control happily with his beak. A moment later, Admiral Rosso’s wrinkled face appeared.

  “Ah, there you are, Teggs,” said the old barosaurus. “Sorry to keep you waiting, but running an entire space fleet keeps me busy. And when you get to my age . . .”

  Teggs saluted. “What’s up, sir?”

  “It’s what’s down that’s worrying us,” said Admiral Rosso. “Down below!”

  Arx and Gipsy swapped puzzled looks. But Teggs just smiled at the thought of a brand new adventure beginning at last.

  “Something very big and very dangerous is swimming about in the seas of Aqua Minor,” the admiral went on. “The cryptoclidus who go fishing there are getting very worried.”

  Teggs frowned. “Crypto-who?”

  “A race of sea reptiles from the planet Cryptos,” Arx explained. “They have run out of food in their own world, so now they fish the waters of Aqua Minor for squid and shellfish. Then they send it by rocket to the folk back home.”

  “Very good, Arx,” smiled Admiral Rosso. “Teggs, you have a first-rate first officer there!”

  “He’s the best,” Teggs agreed. “So, what’s been happening on Aqua Minor?”

  “Five undersea fish factories have been wrecked, along with several submarines.” Admiral Rosso sighed. “But no one knows who’s doing it – or why!”

  Teggs nodded. “And you want us to find out.”

  “That’s right,” said Admiral Rosso. “The cryptoclidus may not be vegetarians, but they are still our friends and neighbours in space. They’ve asked us for help in solving this mystery.”

  “So what are we waiting for?” asked Teggs. “Let’s get to Aqua Minor and see what we can find!”

  Once Admiral Rosso had given them a map and some orders, Teggs, Gipsy and Arx went to the shuttle bay. The air was smoky and thick with the smell of the burning dung that fuelled the engines. Iggy Tooth was waiting for them by the shuttle.

  “The engines are all fired up, Captain!” said the stocky iguanodon. “We’re ready to go!”

  Once they were safely strapped in, the shuttle blasted off. Soon they were soaring through the brilliant blue skies of Aqua Minor.

  “Wow!” said Teggs, peering through the window. “What a view. There’s so much sea to see
!”

  Below them, the ocean stretched out endlessly to the horizon. Enormous spaceships floated above the waves, trailing fishing nets behind them. Teggs watched one spaceship rise higher than the rest. Its net was bulging with shimmering, silvery shellfish that sparkled in the bright sunlight.

  “No wonder the cryptoclidus need our help,” said Arx. “This is a very big ocean for something nasty to hide in.”

  “Where are we going to park the shuttle?” asked Iggy.

  “On one of their floating factories,” said Gipsy, checking her wrist tracker. “It’s not far from here.”

  “It was the first place to be attacked, a month ago,” said Teggs. “We’ll take a look and search for clues.”

  Soon the floating factory came into sight. It looked like a large square of shiny metal, covered in long huts. In the middle of the square, a small, grey shape started waving at them.

  “Who’s that?” asked Iggy, as they came in to land.

  “That must be Commander Cripes,” said Arx. “He’ll be showing us around.”

  The shuttle landed safely, and its doors slid open. A strong smell of shellfish filled the air.

  As the astrosaurs stepped outside, Cripes came waddling up to greet them. Like all cryptoclidus, he looked like a cross between a seal and the Loch Ness monster. He had a long neck and four flat flippers, and his belly dragged on the ground as he moved. A broad-brimmed hat was perched on his head, and a shiny cape kept the sun off his long, smooth back.

  “Welcome to Aqua Minor, guys,” said Cripes. “Admiral Rosso said you were on your way. Glad you could make it!”

  “Thanks,” said Teggs. “This is Arx, and this is Iggy.”

  Cripes smiled. “And this cute little hadrosaur just has to be Gipsy.” He took her hoof in his flipper and kissed it. “Now, let me show you around. This factory stretches down almost to the sea bed . . .”

  Cripes led them into a hut and then into a large lift. It took them down deep under the water. When it finally stopped, Teggs led the way out into a large, crumbling workplace. The machines and conveyor belts stood silent. The walls were cracked. The floor was flooded with smelly, oily water.

  “Hard to believe that this place was brand new six weeks ago, isn’t it?” sighed Cripes. “Just two weeks after opening, this happened.”

  Teggs stared around. “Something has torn the whole place apart!”

  “And this was just the first attack,” Cripes reminded him. “In the last month there have been lots more. Every new factory we build in this area gets wrecked!”

  “What are they used for anyway?” asked Gipsy.

  “The floating factories prepare the fish we catch before we send it back home to feed our people,” Cripes explained. “On the bottom levels, we suck in thousands of ammonites and belemnites from the pens on the sea bed. We take off the shells and rinse them clean. And then a submarine delivers them here for packaging.”

  “We’re under the sea, aren’t we?” asked Iggy. “So how come this place isn’t full of water?”

  “We cryptoclidus live on land as well as in the sea,” Cripes reminded him.

  “The food is easier to pack when it’s not floating around all over the place!”

  Arx plodded over to a wall and prodded a button with his longest horn. Everyone jumped as the machines sparked into life. The conveyor belt jerked forwards. Metal scoops swung down from the wonky ceiling.

  “Cool – the machines still work!” shouted Teggs over all the noise. “What do they do?”

  “The shellfish plop out of this pipe here onto the conveyor belt,” Cripes explained over the din. “Then they’re wrapped up in the wrapping machine and sent upstairs to the spaceships. But nothing has come through that pipe for weeks and in the meantime, the people back home are going hungry.”

  Teggs felt sad watching the ruined machines clanking away with no purpose. But before he could turn them off, he felt the ground shake beneath his feet.

  “That’s not the builders starting work on the repairs already, is it?” asked Gipsy nervously.

  Suddenly, the whole factory rocked as if a giant had kicked it. The astrosaurs were knocked off their feet. The cracks in the walls widened. The floor broke open beneath them, and sea water began rushing in.

  “Never mind the builders!” cried Teggs over the din of the machines and the churning water. “I think the thing that attacked this place before has come back to finish it off!”

  Chapter Two

  THE SINISTER SHADOW

  “Quick, you guys!” yelled Commander Cripes. “Back to the lift!”

  Iggy and Gipsy didn’t need telling twice. They quickly splashed over to the lift. Teggs and Arx began to follow. But before they could reach the others, the floor before them crumbled away into the water.

  “We’re cut off!” cried Arx.

  “Iggy! Gipsy!” shouted Teggs. “Get out of here now, while you can!”

  “But we can’t leave you!” called Gipsy. “You’ll drown!”

  “That’s an order!” Teggs bellowed.

  Iggy sadly saluted him, and Cripes pressed a button. The lift clanked slowly upwards.

  “We’ll get help!” Gipsy called. Then they were gone.

  Arx yelped as a large chunk of falling ceiling nearly squashed him. “Come away from the edge, Captain!” he shouted. “If you fall down there you’ll never get out again!”

  “Wait!” Teggs called, rooted to the spot. “Look! Something’s moving down there!”

  Arx edged closer. Sure enough he saw a dark shadow in the oily water. It looked like the shadow of something very big and very, very dangerous.

  “If only we could get a closer look at it,” said Teggs.

  “Captain,” Arx gasped. “If the water level keeps rising, it might swim up here to get a closer look at us!”

  Together they backed away from the edge. The freezing cold water was now up to their chins.

  “This looks like the end,” sighed Arx.

  “We’ll find a way out,” said Teggs bravely. He tried to think, but it wasn’t easy with the noise of the clanking machines all around him.

  Then he had a brainwave.

  “The machines!” he cried. “If we can climb up onto the machines, we’ll be higher up. The water will take longer to reach us!”

  Teggs grabbed hold of one of the dangling scoops with his beak. He used it to haul himself up onto the clanking conveyor belt. Arx tried to do the same, but he struggled. Teggs wrapped his tail round the triceratops’s head frill and helped him up.

  “Now the water only comes up to our toes!” beamed Teggs.

  “But we’re heading for the wrapping machine!” cried Arx. “It’ll squash us into a parcel!”

  “No, it won’t,” said Teggs, smashing his big, bony tail into the machine. It exploded in a cloud of sparks. “I think it’s out of order!” he grinned.

  As the sparks died away, the machines suddenly stopped. The room fell eerily quiet. The only sound was the swoosh of the sea water beneath them.

  “I guess I caused a short circuit,” said Teggs.

  “At least we can hear ourselves think now,” said Arx. He paused. “Er, Captain . . . can you hear what I hear?”

  Teggs listened. “I can’t hear anything.”

  “Exactly!” said Arx. “Whatever was attacking us, it seems to have given up!”

  Teggs peered over the edge of the conveyor belt. There was no sign of the dark shadow beneath the sea. “I think you’re right,” he whispered.

  But then something large and white came whizzing up through the water.

  “Look out!” yelled Teggs.

  The big white thing burst out of the sea below them with a massive splash. A huge wave of water crashed over Teggs and Arx, blinding them both.

  “It’s a sea monster!” shouted Arx, blinking furiously.

  “Get behind me, Arx!” cried Teggs, his eyes stinging. “I’ll fight it off!”

  “Actually,” said a familiar voice, “I onl
y wanted to give you a lift!”

  Teggs grinned with delight as he blinked away the last of the saltwater. “Iggy!” he cheered.

  The big white thing was only the shuttle. Now it bobbed about on the water in front of them, like a giant rubber duck in a very big bath. Iggy stood in the doorway.

  Gipsy leaned out behind him and waved. “We thought this might be a good time to see if the shuttle works underwater.”

  “Luckily it does!” added Cripes, peering over Gipsy’s shoulder. “At least for short trips!”

  “Good work, guys,” said Teggs as he leaped aboard. “Come on, there’s no time to lose. We just saw something very big swimming about down here. Let’s try to follow it!”

  “That’s risky, Captain,” said Arx. “That thing must be big enough to swallow the shuttle in one gulp!”

  “It’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Teggs told him.

  Once Arx had scrambled into the shuttle, they set off. Like a submarine, the little ship ducked under the waves and hummed quietly through the clear green water. But all they saw were shoals of tiny fish swimming past them. There was no sign of the mysterious dark thing.

  “How could it just vanish?” wondered Teggs.

  Suddenly a warning light came on in the shuttle.

  “Sea water is getting into the engine pipes,” said Iggy.

  “OK, Iggy,” sighed Teggs. “Better head back to the surface, fast!”

  “Aye-aye, Captain,” said Iggy.

  He steered the shuttle sharply upwards. A few seconds later, it burst from the sea like a great white whale. The warning light went out, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

  Teggs turned to Cripes. “Is there somewhere we can go to plan our next move?”

  “The nearest base is Sea Station One, fifty miles north of here. It’s where the fishing teams live while they’re staying on Aqua Minor.”

  “Will the shuttle get us that far?” asked Arx.

  “Just about,” said Iggy. “We don’t have enough power to fly, but we can chug along the surface like a motorboat!”

  “Good,” said Teggs with a grin. “I just hope there’ll be some food about. I’m starving!”

  Chapter Three

  DEEP DOWN DANGER

  “Wow!” said Gipsy as the shuttle sailed into sight of Sea Station One. It was like a cross between a grand hotel, a beautiful harbour and a busy spaceport. Some cryptoclidus were splashing about in enormous pools of salty water. Others sat in cafes eating buckets of fish.