by Steve Cole
“Dreams often seem real,” said Arx, yawning. “In mine, I was an astro-knight, with a jousting pole and everything!”
Teggs smiled. “That sounds like fun!”
They soon reached the flight deck, which was looking a bit tidier. Gipsy was still asleep by her controls. Teggs glanced up at the red crystal meteor poking through the roof, and sighed. Most of the sprinklers here had been destroyed, but one still worked, dripping water onto Gipsy’s head. “Ugh!” she said, waking suddenly with a fright. “What a nasty nightmare. I dreamed I was being attacked by sabre-toothed bananas . . .”
Teggs and Arx stared at her. “Sabre-toothed bananas?” they echoed.
Gipsy’s head-crest flushed purple, and she shrugged. “I can’t help what I dream about!”
“Neither can I,” said Iggy, breezing back in with an umbrella. “I always have the same dream about beating the raptors in a space-car race. Only this time I beat them on jet-cycles as well! Cool or what?”
“Never mind cool – it’s downright cold with the sprinklers on!” said Teggs, pulling at his wet uniform. “What set them off?”
“I was about to ask the same thing,” Iggy said, as Arx crossed to his controls. “And where have the dimorphodon gone?”
Teggs looked around the flight deck. There was not a pterosaur to be seen. “Perhaps they got tired after all. Give Sprite a call, Gipsy.”
Gipsy switched on her communicator and gave a long whistle. She waited for a reply. But the loudspeakers stayed silent.
“Maybe they’re just sleeping really deeply,” suggested Iggy.
“Maybe.” Teggs had an uneasy feeling. “But isn’t it strange that everyone on board seems to have fallen asleep at the same time?”
“I’ve deactivated the sprinkler system,” Arx announced, staring down at his controls. “Now I’ll just check what caused the— Oh, no!” His horns drooped. “There’s been a fire in the alarm-pterosaur’s cabin!”
“What?” cried Teggs. “Is she OK?”
“I don’t know . . .” Arx couldn’t believe his own instruments. “The fire was so intense it overloaded the sprinkler controls and set them off all over the ship! What could cause such a thing?”
Iggy scratched his head. “Whatever it was, I can’t believe that we slept right through it!”
“Calling Terri Alarmosaurus!” said Gipsy urgently, broadcasting all over the ship. “Are you there, Terri? Squawk to us, please!” She frowned. “Perhaps Sprite and the other dimorphodon found out about the fire and rushed to her rescue?”
“Come on!” Teggs jumped into the lift. “Let’s get down there and check everyone’s OK . . .”
Gipsy, Arx and Iggy all bundled after him.
And as they left the flight deck, a deep crimson glow began to pulse in the heart of the crystal meteor. Softly at first. But then, brighter . . .
The astrosaurs raced through the waterlogged corridors of level ten until they slipped and slid to a halt outside Terri’s cabin. Foul-smelling smoke belched from inside. The fire had gone out, but the heat in the burned-out cabin was still enough to roast a giant turnip in seconds.
Normally, Teggs would have popped to the kitchens, taken several giant turnips and done exactly that. But right now, a terrible sadness had silenced his stomach. “Poor Terri,” he whispered.
“Wait!” Arx pointed to a large, smeared mark in the soggy ash further along the corridor. “It looks a bit like a giant footprint. Perhaps something dragged Terri away.”
“Let’s see if we can find any more tracks,” said Gipsy, splashing off down the corridor. But as she turned the corner she skidded to a stop, speechless with shock.
Three sleek and shiny space-cars were blocking her way – one red, one yellow, one blue. Their engines burst into growling, noisy life as they nudged forward, ready to run Gipsy down. And there, behind the steering wheel of each of the rocket-powered racers, sat a dribbling, deadly RAPTOR!
Chapter Four
THE NIGHTMARE CHASE
With the revving of engines loud in her ears, Gipsy sprinted back down the corridor towards her friends. “Look out!” she yelled. “Raptors!”
Teggs stared at her. “What?”
But already, the space-cars were scraping around the corner, their raptor drivers snarling.
“I . . . I don’t believe it!” Iggy stammered. “The raptors, those space-cars . . . they’re straight out of my dream!”
“Interesting coincidence, I’m sure,” said Teggs. “Now, RUN!”
Luckily there wasn’t quite room for all three space-cars to turn the corner at once. The raptors bumped into each other, each desperate to be first to reach the astrosaurs . . . giving Teggs and his friends precious seconds to charge away.
“I think we must all be dreaming,” Arx panted. “How could raptors bring space-cars on board the Sauropod?”
“They must have sneaked in while we were asleep,” said Gipsy.
“And now they’re going to run us down,” Iggy puffed crossly. “Don’t they know a collision could seriously damage the ship’s bodywork?”
Gipsy frowned. “It won’t do wonders for ours either!”
Teggs heard the roar of the space-cars growing louder behind him, sped up as he took the next corner – and with a mighty “OOF!” went crashing into something sleek and shiny-black . . .
“Captain!” Gipsy helped him up. “Are you all right?”
“I think so,” said Teggs, staring at the obstacles in his way. “But this is getting crazier by the moment . . .”
“Three jet-cycles!” Arx declared. The powerful, dung-burning bikes were parked in a row, ready to mount. “But where did they come from?”
“From out of my dream, just like the raptors in the space-cars!” Iggy was grinning from ear to ear as he leaped into the saddle of the closest jet-cycle. “I don’t know how they got here or what’s going on, but jump on board, guys – we’ll outrun those raptors for sure!”
“These contraptions simply can’t have appeared out of nowhere,” Arx pointed out sensibly, climbing onto the second bike. “Even if you did dream about them.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure, Arx.” Teggs helped Gipsy onto the third jet-cycle then picked up something long, sharp and silvery from the floor. “Have you ever seen this before?”
“It’s a jousting pole!” Arx gulped. “Like the one I used in my dream, when I was an astro-knight . . .”
Teggs nodded grimly. General Loki’s ominous words echoed in his head: Soon you and your crew will enter my deadly dream world! “But that was just a nightmare,” he muttered. “Wasn’t it?”
Suddenly, the raptors came screeching round the corner in their brightly coloured space-cars, blocking each other’s way again. They honked their horns, growling louder than their engines.
“Dream or not, it’s time to motor,” Iggy yelled. “Come on, Captain, I’ll give you a backie!”
“No, you three get going while I hold off the raptors,” Teggs commanded. “Get the main doors open – I’ll meet you there.”
As Gipsy, Arx and Iggy sped away, Teggs turned to face the space-cars with his jousting pole. Then he wedged the long, shiny pole between the walls of the corridor, blocking the way.
“That’s what I call a finishing line!” said Teggs with satisfaction. As the space-cars revved their engines, he charged away up the corridor, galloping faster and faster . . .
At last, with a stitch in his side, Teggs reached the main doors. Arx, Gipsy and Iggy had already parked their jet-cycles and were banging helplessly on the stubborn steel shutters.
“Get those doors open!” said Teggs, breathlessly.
Iggy shook his head. “We can’t, Captain.”
“It’s as if someone has blocked them from the outside,” Arx revealed. “More raptors, perhaps?”
“But where did they come from? The sensors showed this planet was deserted, that no spaceships had come here . . .” Gipsy stamped her foot with frustration. “Nothing makes sense. It’s like b
eing stuck in some horrible nightmare!”
“That’s because you are, my dear!” came a vile, villainous voice.
The astrosaurs whirled round, and Teggs felt a shiver run down his spiky back. A swirl of crimson smoke had formed behind them, just as it had in his cabin. And the same familiar, eye-patched figure sat hunched at its centre.
Arx gasped. “Loki!”
“I’m afraid I gummed up the door,” rasped the black-and-orange raptor. “And then I used my short-range teleport to get inside . . .” Iggy lunged for him, but Loki rose up into the air, out of reach. “Pardon my smoke – it’s these anti-gravity boots I’m wearing, so none of you can reach me!”
“Coward,” snarled Teggs.
“Coward? Me?” The raptor looked appalled. “I’m General Loki – commander of the Seven Fleets of Death! Ruler of the meat mines of Raptos! Attacker of apatosaurus, eater of elfosaur—”
“Never mind all that nonsense,” said Teggs sternly. “What’s happened to the alarm pterosaur and my flight crew?”
Loki’s one eye gleamed as he stared down at them. “That is my business. You would do better to worry about your own situation, potato-pants.” He laughed. “I control the meteors that attacked your ship – living meteors, filled with incredible energy.”
“A raptor weapon, I suppose?” said Arx.
“One that gives me power over the world of dreams,” Loki hissed. “First, my meteor in the flight deck sent everyone on this ship into a deep sleep. Then it looked into your heads and brought your dreams to life . . .” He rubbed his cruel claws together with glee. “And now those dream-creatures are coming to get you!”
Chapter Five
BANANAS OF DOOM
“Could it be true?” Teggs murmured. “Good dreams and bad dreams, all tangled up with real life . . .”
“It’s true, all right,” Loki gloated. “The meteors’ powers have plunged you into a living nightmare – and there is nowhere to run!” He pointed past the astrosaurs, to where the raptors had appeared around the corner in their red, blue and yellow space-cars. “See . . .?”
“Quick, guys!” Teggs cried. “Get back on your jet-cycles.”
“I think not, Captain . . .” Loki pointed a clawed finger, there was a flash of scarlet light – and the jet-cycles vanished!
Iggy gulped. “My dream bikes!”
“No, fool . . .” Loki snapped his long, pointed jaws. “My dream-bikes. The meteors have brought your dreams and nightmares to life, but I control them all!”
“Don’t let him distract you, guys,” Teggs told his friends. “If we can’t drive off, we’ll stand and fight.”
“Not if I don’t want you to!” Loki pointed his finger at the raptors in their space-cars – and in two more scarlet flashes, they disappeared too! “Nothing happens here unless I allow it . . .”
Gipsy stared at Loki in amazement. “You just destroyed your own raptors!”
He shrugged. “They were only dreams.”
“Hang on a minute,” cried Teggs. “Dreams aren’t real – how can they hurt us?”
Loki gave him an unpleasant smile. “Allow me to demonstrate, pea-brain . . .”
“Captain!” Gipsy clutched his arm. “Look behind you!”
A large banana had appeared on the floor.
“Huh,” said Teggs. “What’s that going to do? Give me indigestion if I eat it?”
But suddenly, the banana jumped up and balanced on its stalk. A mouth opened up in the side of it to reveal two sharp yellow fangs . . .
“Captain, it’s a sabre-toothed banana!” Gipsy shouted, backing away in panic. “Just like in my nightmare!”
Teggs tried to whack it away with his tail – but the banana chomped down on the tip! “OW!” yelled Teggs, trying to shake it loose. “Get off!”
Arx and Iggy went to help him – but more bananas rained down on their heads! One of the fierce fruits unpeeled itself a little and thwacked Gipsy on the snout. “They always attack in bunches,” she cried, as another banana bared its fangs. “I dreamed them that way.”
“You see, astro-fools?” Loki threw back his scaly, stripy head and laughed. “You can be hurt by these diabolical dream-demons. And you can be destroyed too – any time I choose . . .”
“Talk to the tail, Loki.” Teggs punched another gnashing ’nana to the floor. “We’ve beaten you before, we can beat you again.”
“Right!” cried Iggy. He punched a banana so hard that it disappeared with a fruity pop! “Hey, where’d it go?”
“I don’t know.” Arx stamped down hard on another banana – POP! “But this one went the same way.”
“Cool!” Teggs curled up into a spiky ball and hurled himself about the corridor, bursting bananas with every bounce. “The harder you hit them, the faster they split!”
Gipsy tail-swiped the last banana standing and it popped out of existence. “So much for your deadly dreams, Loki!”
But the raptor general went on smiling. “I was about to say – to make things more fun, I’ve made some of the dream-creatures simple to deal with, while others are deadly at first touch.” He leered down at them. “I do hope you’ll enjoy discovering which is which . . .”
“Why all this game-playing, Loki?” Teggs demanded. “Just tell us where you’ve taken Terri and the dimorphodon, and what it is that you want!”
“You’ll find out soon enough . . .” Loki began to fade away. “If you live that long!” His mocking laughter lingered in the air, even after the last wisp of scarlet smoke from his boots had vanished.
“Captain, what are we going to do?” asked Gipsy nervously.
“We must round up the crew and put them into teams,” Teggs declared. “There’s safety in numbers, and we must be ready to fight anything and everything.”
“Of course.” Iggy swallowed hard. “So far we’ve only had things from our own dreams to deal with. But with so many other astrosaurs on board, there will be loads of nightmare creatures stomping about!”
“Maybe we’ll only meet the ones that are easy to destroy,” said Arx brightly.
Gipsy sighed. “Or maybe we won’t.”
Suddenly, a loud thump echoed from round the corner. It sounded like a huge sack of slime had been thrown to the floor. THUMP! There it was again, louder this time, followed by a throaty, bad-tempered roar . . .
“Wait a moment.” Teggs narrowed his eyes as the loudest THUMP yet shook the floor. “I’ve heard that sound somewhere before.”
“So have I.” Iggy gasped. “It was back on the planet Creepus . . .”
“Oh, no!” Teggs looked at him in alarm. “Don’t tell me someone has dreamed about that thing . . .”
“What thing?” asked Gipsy, puzzled.
She had her answer a moment later as a horrifying monster hopped into sight. It was a huge, red spiky ball with a gaping mouth crammed with white jagged teeth. A big, pink muscly arm, ending in a fist, sprouted from its top. The monster had just one phenomenal foot, with sixteen spindly toes. And on the end of every toe there was a bloodshot red eyeball, staring around with hatred.
“Bless my horns!” cried Arx. “What is that brute?”
“Loki’s pet,” said Teggs grimly. “It’s a kraggle-scruncher – one of the deadliest creatures in the universe!”
Chapter Six
HORRORS OF THE MIND
The bizarre monster growled menacingly.
Arx shuddered. “He looks tougher than the bananas.”
Gipsy stared at the monster’s massive foot. “So that’s what made the print we found on the floor outside Terri’s cabin.”
Teggs nodded. “It explains the fire there too.”
Arx frowned. “It does?”
Suddenly, the kraggle-scruncher spat a blistering ball of white flame straight at the astrosaurs!
“See what I mean?” Desperately, Teggs shoved his friends aside. The fireball blazed past – missing the gang by millimetres – and scorched the wall behind them. “Now, run!”
The astrosaurs sprinted away like contestants in the Great Dinosaur Games. They dashed down dozens of corridors. Along one, they found a cleaner being threatened by a bunch of snarling bushes from Teggs’s dream. Iggy jumped up and down on the bushes until they popped, and Gipsy hid the cleaner in a cupboard.
“Can’t we hide with her, till the kraggle-scruncher goes past?” Arx panted.
“Not a chance,” said Teggs. “Now it’s got our scent, it’ll never stop hunting us!”
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! went the kraggle-scruncher behind them.
The astrosaurs sped off again – straight into the path of a humungous mop, and a sponge the size of a bus! “Ooof!” Teggs yelled as the mop’s white raggedy end knocked him aside. The sponge splashed him with water, and then both objects whizzed away out of sight.
Iggy helped Teggs to his feet. “I wonder if that cleaner dreamed up those things?”
Teggs nodded gravely. “I wonder what else we will bump into . . .”
The kraggle-scruncher roared in the distance, and the astrosaurs ran off yet again. But the dream-things seemed determined to slow them down. A fierce flock of butterflies made of newspaper flapped into their faces. A spotty pink squid tried to trip them with its tentacles. They even had to pick their way through a dense forest made out of smelly cheese.
“How can so many weird and wonderful things suddenly come to life like this?” Gipsy groaned. “Those meteors really must be magic!”
“I don’t understand how Loki took control of them so fast,” said Arx. “He’s only been out of prison for a few days. And how did he get here without a spaceship?”
“However he managed it, he’s more powerful than ever.” Iggy swatted at a flying pink scorpion as they pushed through the last of the cheesy trees. “He’s playing with us!”
“We mustn’t give up,” Teggs told his friends, leading them up the steps to level nine and setting off again along the corridor. But as they rounded a corner, they almost crashed into two ankylosaur guards charging the other way. Just behind them was their spiky security chief, Alass.
“Captain, what’s happening?” she wailed. “It’s like we’re caught up in some demented dream!”