by Steve Cole
“Take a look,” came a chillingly familiar voice, as “Bunwinkle” unzipped his neck and pulled off his head – to reveal a scuffed, scarred and tiger-striped velociraptor! He wore a black combat suit. A patch covered one eye. And now he reached down inside his costume and pulled out a gun.
“We’ve got to be seeing things.” Teggs stared in horror. “It can’t be you!”
“It’s me all right, Teggs,” hissed the raptor. “Your deadliest enemy – General Loki!”
Chapter Three
PLOTS AND PLANS
“What are we waiting for?” growled Iggy. “Let’s get that stripy loser.”
“Stay back, Iggy,” Admiral Rosso ordered. “He’s holding an atom gun. It could zap us all to ashes.”
Teggs raised his spiky tail and bunched his fists. “Where’s the real Bunwinkle, Loki?”
“Lying down in a cupboard in his office,” hissed Loki. “I trust you’ll agree, my impression of him has been superb.”
“You ruthless raptor, how did you get here?” Rosso demanded.
“He was a prisoner, like me,” said Zindi, still staring in shock. “Locked up in the cell next door.”
“And it was you who put me here, astrosaurs,” hissed the scuffed, scaly figure. “Me, Loki – commander of the seven fleets of death! Ruler of the meat mines of Raptos! Killer of kentrosaurus, dominator of dream crystals—”
“And smelliest toilet-breath of the year winner ten times over,” Teggs concluded. “How in space did you get hold of a diplodocus costume?”
“Simple.” Loki smiled. “Two days ago, I bit one of my warders, who sent me to Bunwinkle’s office. The governor was just calling Rosso to arrange your visit to Zindi. But his trip through time had left him so distracted I was able to overpower him the moment he hung up! Then I used his private phone to summon a raptor assault squad – and to call a fancy-dress shop . . .”
Rosso bobbed his head forward. “So you could hire a grey diplodocus costume.”
“Precisely,” Loki agreed. “I forced Bunwinkle to act normally and hid out in his office till my secret delivery arrived this morning. Perfect timing for Zindi’s wonderful demonstration.” He snapped his jaws. “Now I shall help myself to my dear neighbour’s time machine and destroy you all.”
“No!” cried Zindi.
“You can’t stop me,” Loki sneered.
“Then let’s see if I can!” Suddenly Teggs lashed out with his fist and thumped the one-eyed raptor on the snout. With a squawk, Loki was knocked right out of the neck of his diplo-suit. And as he fell, he dropped the gun.
“Get him!” Teggs yelled.
Arx, Iggy and Gipsy started forward at their captain’s command. But then the zip down the middle of the abandoned costume opened up, and a dozen vicious-looking black-and-orange reptiles rushed out with horrible speed.
“Raptors!” boomed Rosso in warning. “Must be that assault squad Loki called in. They’ve been working that diplodocus costume together, like a jumbo pantomime horse!”
But as the evil reptiles began their attack, Teggs rolled onto his back and spun round, knocking three of them to the floor with a single sweep of his spiky tail.
At the same time, Gipsy scooped up Loki’s fallen gun – but before she could aim it, another slavering raptor knocked it out of her grip. Gipsy booted the raptor aside, and it staggered straight into a hefty punch from Iggy. At the same time, Arx butted two raptors over to Rosso, who lumbered forward and squashed them under his huge feet.
Teggs dodged another raptor, leaped over the empty diplo-costume and landed beside Loki – who was lying face down, apparently cowering in fear. “Give it up, Loki. You’re finished.”
“Finished?” Loki rolled over to reveal that he now wore a gas mask. “You potato-brained plop-head! You’re finished . . .” He hurled a white cube down at the floor and it burst open in a hissing haze of smoke.
“Gas!” Teggs gasped. “Look out, everyone!” But already his head was spinning. Within moments the world about him had dwindled to darkness, and he knew no more . . .
“Wake up, Captain!”
Teggs stirred groggily at the sound of Gipsy’s voice. His eyes flickered open and he saw her face looking down at him, full of concern.
“It’s all right, sir. You were closest to the gas so you’ve slept longer than everyone else. But you’re going to be fine . . .”
Suddenly Bunwinkle pushed in beside her.
“Get back!” Teggs cried.
Gipsy shushed him. “Don’t worry, this is the real Governor Bunwinkle, sir.”
Teggs breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad you’re OK. Where’s Loki and his assault squad?”
“I’m afraid they got away,” said Bunwinkle. “With the time machine.”
“Admiral Rosso’s gone straight to DSS HQ and put the whole vegetarian sector on red alert,” said Gipsy quickly. “We’ll find him.”
“Not if he’s hiding somewhere in the past,” Teggs muttered.
“I’m sorry,” said Bunwinkle, helping Teggs to stand. “That wretched raptor threatened to have my grandmother eaten if I tried to warn anyone he’d escaped. Then he knocked me out and tied me up. What could I do?”
“It’s what Loki could have done that worries me.” Teggs shook his dizzy head. “He said he’d destroy us all – so why didn’t he?”
“I think he wants us to sweat,” said Zindi. She was free of her chains now and working with Arx, hunched over a mass of machinery and wires. “He knows that with a time machine, he can strike whenever he wants.”
“Loki literally has all the time in the world,” said Gipsy sadly.
Teggs looked about. “Where’s Iggy?”
“Stoking the Sauropod’s engines,” Arx reported, plugging cables into sockets inside a metal frame in the shape of a pyramid. “Admiral Rosso wants us to be ready to go after Loki as soon as Zindi and I have finished here.”
Teggs frowned. “And what are you doing?”
“Building an identical time machine from my notes,” said Zindi. “It took me five years to build the first one . . . but with Arx’s help and supplies from your ship, the second one should be ready in twenty-four hours!”
“Now” – Gipsy turned to Bunwinkle – “we’d better get back to sewing the new exo-suits . . .”
Teggs saw a heap of silvery material stitched through with wires and golden discs, and a pile of half-finished helmets. “You’re making replacements for the safety gear Loki took?”
Bunwinkle nodded. “For you and your three friends to wear when you go after him. It’s a good thing I’m the reigning champion in the Space Prison Sewing League!”
Teggs smiled weakly. “It looks as if you guys have everything under control. What should I do?”
“I think you should rest until that gas has completely worn off, Captain,” said Gipsy fondly. “Something tells me we’re headed for the greatest adventure of our lives!”
Teggs was too worried to rest. As soon as he’d stopped feeling dizzy from the gas, he went to the Sauropod’s gym for a workout. His space radio was tuned in to DSS news reports – Rosso had put hundreds of ships on Loki’s trail. If only one of them would find something . . .
Suddenly he jumped as a new report squawked from the radio’s speakers. “A raptor assault squad has been arrested while trying to escape in sector seven of the Veg-meat Zone.”
“YES!” Teggs cheered.
“Unfortunately,” the newsreader went on, “General Loki was not among the captured carnivores.”
Teggs groaned. “BOOOOOO!”
“However, a heavily shielded raptor death-flyer has been sighted in sector eight.” The newsreader sounded grave. “It vanished into a small black hole, believed to be a newly-formed tunnel in space . . .”
“A space tunnel!” Teggs breathed. The Sauropod had travelled through one before, and had barely survived. Space tunnels were like intergalactic short cuts between two distant points – a hundred-year journey might take mere minute
s by space tunnel. But any such voyage was incredibly dangerous – the forces within the tunnel could smash spaceships to smithereens . . .
Teggs pressed a red button on the radio – the hotline to Admiral Rosso. “Hello?” came Rosso’s voice.
“Sir, this is Teggs. Do I have permission to pursue Loki through that tunnel?”
Rosso paused. “Granted,” he murmured. “I was just about to contact you. Our experts have interrogated Loki’s gang of raptors and studied that space tunnel they made. And now we know where Loki has gone.”
Teggs waited tensely. “Well?”
Rosso took a deep breath. “The space tunnel leads to . . . Planet Earth.”
“Earth!” Teggs gasped in awe. “The ancient home of the dinosaurs. But why would Loki want to take a time machine to Earth?”
“None of us know, not even his raptors,” Rosso reported. “But you can be sure he has something terrible in mind. Whatever it takes, Teggs – Loki must be stopped!”
Chapter Four
THE DINOSAURS OF MARS
Within twelve hours, the astrosaurs had waved goodbye to Zindi and Bunwinkle and were jetting off to the space tunnel in the Sauropod.
Everyone inside was hard at work.
Iggy was busy testing the powerful force-field generators he and Arx had installed in each of the ship’s six shuttles. Together they would create a super-tough invisible shield right around the Sauropod.
Arx and a group of iguanodon engineers were checking and double-checking every circuit in the new time machine. “It’s an exact copy of the one Loki stole from Zindi,” Arx noted. “It’s not strong enough to send the whole Sauropod back through time, but it should be able to transport a shuttle with a crew of four.”
Chirping in agreement, a group of dimorphodon – the Sauropod’s flying reptile flight crew – flapped around Shuttle Alpha, fitting it with special exo-discs that would keep it safe on the incredible journey ahead.
Meanwhile, Gipsy and Teggs were on the flight deck testing the special exo-suits, snipping at loose stitches and checking that each special disc was in place.
Teggs tried on his own suit. “I shouldn’t have eaten those bushes at lunch time!” he groaned, trying to hold in his stomach. “Do we really have to wear these things?”
“If we don’t,” Gipsy told him, “Zindi said our bodies will be torn apart by raw time energy the moment we try to travel.”
Teggs gulped. “We really have to wear these things.”
“Warning!” shrieked the alarm pterosaur through speakers around the ship. “Space tunnel dead ahead. Starting to suck us in. SQUAWWWK!”
Teggs looked at Gipsy. “This is it!” He switched on the scanner screen. Starless blackness gaped ahead of them.
Gipsy switched on her communicator. “All crew stand by for a bumpy ride!”
Arx hurried onto the flight deck and took his seat. “The time machine is ready,” he announced. “We can use it as soon as we’ve travelled through the tunnel.”
“Good work,” said Teggs. “But are you sure we will be able to find Loki?”
“Zindi built a tracer into her time machine, in case it ever got lost,” Arx explained. “Right now its signal shows that Loki has gone back sixty-five million, one hundred thousand and fifty-six years into the past.”
Teggs whistled. “That’s a long way back.”
“But nothing’s changed in our own time, has it?” said Gipsy. “Perhaps his ship didn’t make it through the space tunnel. Or if it did, perhaps he hasn’t been able to do whatever it is he wanted to do.”
Arx shook his head. “When an earthquake happens at sea, it creates a tidal wave. It may take many minutes for that wave to strike land, but it hits in the end. And I think a time-quake is much the same.”
Teggs nodded. “Even now the effects of Loki’s meddling – what he’ll do if we don’t go back and stop him – could be crashing through the centuries towards us . . .”
Iggy’s face appeared on the scanner screen. “The space tunnel is pulling us in faster, Captain. Should I put the engines in reverse to slow us down?”
“No, Iggy,” said Teggs. “The sooner we’re through this thing the better. Switch on those shuttle shields of yours and increase our thrusters to maximum power!”
“Maximum?” Iggy puffed out his scaly cheeks, then chuckled. “Right you are, Captain.”
Teggs turned to Sprite, the dimorphodon’s team leader. “Shut down all but the most vital systems.”
Sprite launched into the air, tweeting to his fellows as they zoomed and swooped between the controls, pulling levers and flicking switches. Lights winked out and screens went blank as the Sauropod picked up speed.
“Entering the space tunnel in five seconds!” Arx shouted.
“Five . . . four . . . three . . .”
Teggs wedged himself into his control pit. “Hold on tight, everyone. Here we go!”
As Arx’s countdown concluded, the ship shook and started to spin. The air grew hotter. The few remaining lights glared red like STOP signs. But there was no turning back now. Teggs closed his eyes as the Sauropod whizzed onwards through the tunnel, creaking and grinding and rattling and stretching. He thought his bones would bounce right out of his skin as the great ship’s flight grew wilder, crazier, completely out of control . . .
Then – WHOOOSH!
Glowing red-hot, the Sauropod was flung out the other end of the tunnel like a sizzling stone.
“Brakes!” Teggs commanded, as dizzy dimorphodon fell flapping all around him.
Arx pulled hard on a big lever, and with a screeching, scorching rush of reverse energy, the Sauropod came to a steaming stop. “Well,” said Teggs, clutching his queasy tum. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“It was completely horrible,” said Gipsy. “But at least we’re still alive.”
“Switch all systems on again,” said Teggs, climbing out of the scorching-hot control pit. “Did we make it, Arx? Have we come out in Earth’s solar system?”
With a wobbly hand, Arx switched on the space radar. “We’re just forty million miles away from Earth, sir,” he reported. “Close to the planet Mars.”
“Wow.” Gipsy whistled. “The history books say that the first dinosaurs in space lived on Mars.”
“And Venus too,” said Arx. “They used up most of the solar system’s resources – that’s why when the meteor hit Earth, the dinosaurs had to leave this part of space altogether and strike out for somewhere new.”
Teggs nodded. “And now, sixty-five million years later . . . we’re back!”
“Mars is a dead world now,” Arx declared. “The only place around here that can support life is the Earth – and it’s full of those funny human things.”
Teggs nodded. “I’ve seen blurry pictures taken through megascopes. They’re an odd bunch. I hope they don’t spot us in space – they’d most likely try to blow us to bits.”
“They won’t,” Arx assured him. “Human technology is pretty basic. They don’t even have proper spaceships.”
“Then what is THAT?” Gipsy pointed at the scanner, which had just flickered back into life. It showed a huge, scary spaceship approaching; it was shaped like a double fang and a red skull was stencilled on its side.
“Must be Loki’s ship,” Teggs murmured. “He can’t have had a chance to use the time machine yet.”
Arx wasn’t sure. “Loki took a shielded death-flyer through the space tunnel, remember? I don’t recognize this design.”
“Probably a new raptor invention.” Teggs turned to Sprite. “Steer us around Mars. When Loki follows us, we’ll double back and attack.”
The dimorphodon clattered away to obey. But then Gipsy gasped. “Message incoming, Captain – from Mars!”
“But I thought it was a dead planet?” Teggs frowned. “Put the message through.”
“This is Martian Dinosaur Command,” came a low, hissing voice. “Identify yourselves, or our warships will attack.”
Gipsy gulped. “D
inosaurs with warships on Mars?”
“Space radar shows there are massive dino-space forts all over the planet,” said Arx incredulously. “And loads more on the Earth.”
“But what about the humans?” Gipsy quavered.
“Switch on the long-range astroscopes,” ordered Teggs. “Let’s have a look at them.”
Arx flicked some switches and a blue world swam fuzzily into view. Teggs had seen its picture in history books – now he and his friends gazed out in wonder at the real thing . . .
But as the shuttle’s super-telescopes zoomed in on the planet, one thing became very clear.
There were no humans on the Earth!
The planet was full of dinosaurs – meat-eating dinosaurs of many different breeds. Their filthy cities and meat farms were everywhere.
‘Something is very wrong,” Teggs muttered. “No humans and no plant-eating dinosaurs. Only carnivores.”
“This is Martian Dinosaur Command,” came the snarling voice again. “You have been classified as hostile. We will now destroy you.”
“Wait!” said Teggs. “This is an astrosaur ship on an urgent mission for the Dinosaur Space Service.”
“Astrosaur?” sneered the voice. “What’s an astrosaur? And what is the Dinosaur Space Service?”
Teggs tried again. “We’ve come from the Vegetarian Sector—”
“The what?” Nasty laughter crackled over the speakers. “You’ll be telling us you’re a ship full of plant-eating dinosaurs next.”
“We are!” Teggs shouted. “What’s so funny about that?”
“Everyone knows the plant-eaters were wiped out by the great meteor,” the voice snarled. “Only us meat-eaters escaped before it hit – and a few thousand years later we came back again.”
“What a pathetic attempt to trick us,” came another mean-sounding voice. “Don’t you know anything about history?”
“Not this version of history,” said Teggs quietly. “It’s been rewritten – by Loki!”
Gipsy’s headcrest had flushed pink with shock. “He’s started a time-quake sixty-five million years ago, and the aftershocks have destroyed our present! Everything we’ve ever known . . . all our friends . . . ”