Astrosaurs 19

by Steve Cole

  “Captain! Iggy!” Gipsy started forward to help. “What’s happening?”

  “Keep back!” groaned Teggs, his scaly skin starting to steam.

  “It’s . . . an . . . anti-intruder device,” Iggy panted, his skull searing with pain. “Touch us and . . . you’ll get fried . . . too!”

  “We must do something, Sprite!” Gipsy frowned. “Wibble-wibble . . . I mean, try and reach that wibble – that control panel – up there!”

  Sprite wasn’t sure about Gipsy’s wibbles, but his keen eye spotted the controls she was talking about, high above the door. He flapped up, twisted off the controls’ protective cover and tore out some wires from inside. Finally, the power cut off, and Teggs and Iggy flopped to the ground.

  “I thought we were goners there,” puffed Iggy as Sprite perched proudly on his head. “Thanks, little guy.”

  “And well done for spotting those controls, Gipsy,” added Teggs. “They must maintain the power to the ship’s defences. But what made you say wibble, like Krokk – and like Frisbee? Are you sure you’re OK?”

  Just then, Arx rushed into the clearing with a load of dimorphodon on his back and a butterfly balanced on his nose-horn. “I heard the shouts and came running. What’s going on?”

  “Wibble,” replied Gipsy. Then she went cross-eyed, jumped up and ran off into the forest, “wibbling” and wobbling as she went.

  “Gipsy!” Teggs shouted as the dimorphodon flapped around in alarm.

  “What’s wrong with her?” asked Iggy, baffled.

  “She’s gone the same way as Captain Krokk!” said Arx.

  “And possibly Frisbee and the farmers too.” Teggs started off into the undergrowth. “Iggy, try to get that door open. Arx, come with me – we’ve got to bring Gipsy back!”

  The two friends ran full pelt through the forest, trampling everything in their path. But as they rounded a bushy corner . . .

  “Oh, no!” Teggs yelled. “Gipsy!”

  Just like Krokk, Gipsy had been captured by the fearblooms. The big, spindly plants were snapping at her arms and legs, and the soil beneath her churned as they tried to drag her underground.

  “No, you don’t!” Teggs dived towards the plants, which reared up as he approached like a nest of serpents. He tried to squash them, but they started biting at him too – and they were fiercely strong, tangling him up.

  Arx ran up and used his horns to try and wrestle the fearblooms aside, but they bit at his head-frill, trying to drive him off. “Fight them, Gipsy!” He grabbed her hoof to stop her going under.

  “You must fight them!”

  But Gipsy snatched her hoof away – and conked herself on the head with it. The fearblooms left Teggs and Arx alone and crowded over Gipsy.

  With a final cry of “Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibble!” the helpless hadrosaur disappeared into the forest floor . . .

  Chapter Six

  GOING UNDERGROUND

  “Gipsy!” Swinging his tail like a pickaxe, Teggs started digging at the mud. “Hold on, we’ll get you out!”

  Arx pressed his head against the disturbed soil. “I can hear Gipsy! She’s still alive – and, er, still wibbling.”

  “Those evil plants,” muttered Teggs, digging all the harder. “Attacking her when she can’t fight back – just like they attacked Krokk.”

  “They might have attacked Frisbee, Yokul and the others too,” Arx ventured. “We’d need to ask Leefer to be sure, but it sounds like Gipsy and Krokk were both acting as oddly as the farmers were before they vanished.”

  Teggs gasped. “Arx – you don’t think the fearblooms are to blame for sending dinosaurs round the twist?”

  “It’s a possibility,” Arx admitted, wiping yellow goo from his head. “They left this plant juice behind when they bit us. It might be poisonous. But Gipsy was definitely their target – just as Krokk was.”

  Teggs wiped his own bruises on the grass. “I’m still weak from that carnivore booby-trap. Arx, help me dig. I’ll call on all the dimorphodon for help.” He threw back his head and whistled. “That should bring the whole flock flapping.”

  Arx nodded, burrowing with his horns “Hang in there, Gipsy – we’re going to get you out!”

  Back at the gigantosaurus rocket, Iggy was fiddling with the door controls. They were too high for him to reach on his own, so Sprite and some of the dimorphodon were flapping hard to support him in mid-air. A blue butterfly perched on his nose as if taking a rest. “Push off!” said Iggy, shooing it away. “Some of us are trying to work!”

  Then Teggs’s whistling call echoed urgently through the air. “That’s the Captain!” Iggy realized.

  “Eeep!” chirped Sprite in shocked reply. As one, the dimorphodon flock let go of Iggy and zoomed away.

  “Whoa! Oof!” Iggy landed with a bump on his butt. “I wonder what Teggs needs them for?” He raised his communicator – but it wasn’t working. “That blast of energy from the doors must have fried the circuits.”

  “Yes,” came an icy whisper behind him. “It did.”

  Iggy jumped up, as a sour, chemical smell caught in his nostrils. “Who’s there?”

  “Why, the same cunning carnivore who captured your friend, of course.” A grey gigantosaurus in a black skull-cap pushed out from the bushes, waving a jar full of mauve goo. “I am Gucklock the Poisoner. And unless you open that door at once, I shall destroy you with this poisonous purple potion!”

  “So it was you who tied up Gipsy.” Iggy scowled at the soft-spoken carnivore. “We thought you were hiding inside your ship.”

  “That’s what I wanted you to think,” Gucklock gloated. “I used the female as bait to lure you here. I knew that once you’d discovered the rocket you would be determined to get inside . . . and that is exactly what I want. I can’t afford any delays while you wait for your little flapping friends to come back and lift you high enough to work.” Gucklock stomped towards him. “So, you can stand on my back instead.”

  Iggy held his nose and reluctantly clambered up the carnivore’s thick neck. “You’ll choke me to death first with your pong.”

  “That is merely the smell of my powerful poisons,” Gucklock retorted. “If you can’t open the door quickly, I’ll show you exactly how powerful they are!”

  “I already know,” Iggy muttered. “I’ve seen what you’ve done to the crops on this planet.”

  “Beautiful, isn’t it? A whole planet – poisoned!” Gucklock sniggered. “We landed here two weeks ago under cover of a storm. We ran tests on the soil and the crops, and I experimented with different potions to see which would do the most damage. It didn’t take long to create a germy spray that spreads super-swiftly through the air . . .”

  Iggy’s eyes narrowed as he tinkered with the controls. “Is that what turned Gipsy and the others funny?”

  “No,” Gucklock hissed. “What happened to your friend has happened to my crew too.” He huffed a little forlornly. “I think I am the only one who has not been affected.”

  ‘Like Leefer – the only one of the farmers who’s still normal,” Iggy pondered.

  “All twenty of my crewmates have gone crazy now. Captain Krokk locked them away inside the ship. He hoped that with my knowledge of toxic science I could find a cure . . . But I could not. And then, Krokk went crazy too . . .”

  “We noticed.” Balanced precariously on the carnivore, Iggy reluctantly worked on. “What are you planning to do once you get inside?”

  “Leave, of course, and get on with the mission!” said Gucklock. “There are still nine more of your filthy farm-worlds to poison before we can return home to Gigantos.”

  Iggy glared down at him. “If you destroy those crops, millions of plant-eaters will starve!”

  “That’s the whole idea,” hissed Gucklock. “The Vegetarian Sector will be so weakened, it will quickly fall before the might of the Carnivore Space Force’s invading armies.” He chuckled. “Once we have conquered, we can fatten the population back up again – ready to be eaten. Now, keep w
orking.”

  “No!” said Iggy. “Do what you want with me – but I’ll never help you!”

  Gucklock roared with anger and threw back his head. Iggy lost his balance, and accidentally stuck his wrench into the heart of the controls. There was a shower of sparks and Iggy fell, striking the ground with a thump that whumped the air from his lungs. Gucklock loomed over him . . .

  But then, to Iggy’s horror, the rocket’s door hummed quietly open!

  “Well, well. It seems you did help me, after all.” Gucklock gave a throaty laugh and pulled a glass jar from his belt. “Many thanks, you leaf-chewing chump! Your reward is a gobful of this deadly poison. Mmm, tasty . . .”

  “Thanks, but he’s already eaten!” Without warning, Arx came charging out of the trees and rammed into the pongy poisoner, knocking him onto his side. The ground shook as the carnivore fell.

  “Nice rescue, Arx!” Iggy beamed.

  “You’re not out of trouble yet,” Arx reminded him.

  Gucklock staggered back up, snarling. Arx bashed him in the belly with all three horns, and then Iggy sprang up and butted the monster under the chin. With a gargle of rage, Gucklock stumbled backwards into his ship and thwacked a button with his tail. The door slammed down with the force of a guillotine’s blade.

  “Fools,” Gucklock rasped from behind the door. “Now I will take off and incinerate you – together with this entire forest!”

  “He’ll do it too,” Iggy said worriedly. “What are you doing here, anyway? Why did you came back, where’s Gipsy?”

  “Your communicator’s not working,” Arx explained. “Gipsy’s been dragged underground by fearblooms, and we need extra help getting her out.”

  “I wonder why she’s been affected and the rest of us haven’t?” Iggy frowned. “Mind you, underground might be the safest place to be if this rocket takes off . . .”

  Suddenly the ground beneath their feet began to tremble and shake. The next moment, it collapsed completely! With a yell of alarm, both Iggy and Arx went tumbling into deep, soily darkness.

  “OOF!” “ARGH!” They landed in a dazed heap. Flat on his back, Arx saw a round window of gloomy forest high above – then heard the sound of something heavy shuffling through the darkness. Something coming closer . . .

  Chapter Seven

  TUNNEL VISIONS

  Arx and Iggy held dead still as a sweet, sickly smell filled the freezing air . . .

  “I recognize that whiff!” Iggy cried, getting to his feet. “It’s—”

  “‘Tunnel-explorer Leefer’, they call me,” came the lambeosaur’s familiar voice. He put down his super-spade and switched on a torch. “Glad to see you! Where’d you drop in from?”

  “The forest,” Iggy informed him.

  “Leefer’s tunnel-digging must’ve weakened the ground beneath us,” Arx realized.

  “Not my tunnel,” Leefer protested. “I was digging underneath the field when I fell through the ground too!”

  “What happened then?” asked Iggy.

  “Well, my super-spade got broken in the fall so I couldn’t dig myself out again. I’ve been walking for miles through these tunnels, trying to find a way out. All the time we’ve been farming here, I had no idea they ever existed . . .” Leefer brightened, and handed Iggy a withered plant. “Still, at least I got that sample you wanted! Grabbed it just before I fell.”

  “Er, thank you,” said Arx. “But we know now the crops have been poisoned by gigantosaurus invaders!”

  Leefer’s jaw dropped. “Truly?”

  “They came here during that big storm a couple of weeks back and mixed up something horrible,” Iggy informed him. “But whatever’s sent your farmer friends funny has also affected the carnivores – and Gipsy.”

  “The fearblooms pulled her into the mud along with Krokk the gigantosaurus,” Arx went on. “I suspect they’ve dragged them down here.”

  Leefer gulped. “You mean . . . these tunnels were made by the fearblooms?”

  “I believe so,” said Arx gravely, as the sound of quiet scuttling edged into their ears. “We’ve fallen right into the fearblooms’ lair!”

  “Nonsense. I’ve not seen a single one of them down here . . .” Leefer trained his torch along the tunnel – to reveal a bundle of the creepy plants, standing mere metres away, swaying and snapping their green jaws. “Until now, that is!”

  “They must’ve heard us fall,” said Arx, “and come looking.”

  “Time we weren’t here,” said Iggy.

  “I think the fearblooms are thinking the same thing!” Arx said, as the looming plants rattled their roots and surged along the tunnel towards them. “Quick – run for it!”

  The three dinosaurs sprinted away through the dark maze of tunnels. Arx led the way, praying he didn’t run straight into another plant ambush . . .

  “I hate running,” Leefer complained.

  “Let me guess,” puffed Iggy, racing along beside him. “Hate-to-run Leefer, they call you.”

  “Exactly!” Leefer was astounded. “How did you know?”

  After a couple of minutes, Arx stopped running and chanced a glance over his shoulder. There were no fearblooms in sight. “Let’s rest for a moment,” he said, and Iggy and Leefer flopped down gratefully. “I must try to get my bearings . . .”

  Just then, Iggy jumped as something sprinkled over his nose. “Ugh! What’s that?”

  Leefer shone his torch at Iggy. “It’s mud! Must be coming from . . .”

  “Up there!” Iggy backed away as more dirt came crumbling down from the roof high above. “Look out – it’s another cave-in!”

  With a juddering rumble, the ceiling fell apart. Arx and Iggy dived aside and dragged Leefer with them as a ton of rocky soil crashed down beside them – along with a small, mucky, flapping bundle and a grubby-looking orange-brown stegosaurus . . .

  “Sprite! Captain Teggs!” Arx cried. “Fancy bumping into you.”

  “More of a splat than a bump.” Iggy helped Teggs and Sprite to stand. “Are you two all right?”

  Sprite nodded and cheeped to the other dimorphodon, warning them to wait up above.

  “We’re fine, guys,” said Teggs. “We were just digging our way down to get to Gipsy when the ground gave way. How about you?”

  Iggy and Arx quickly told their captain of their adventures – and watched his worried frown grow deeper and deeper.

  “Somehow, we’ve got to rescue Gipsy and then get above ground to stop Gucklock,” Teggs said. “How do the fearblooms come and go from down here to up there?”

  “I think they use their vines, leaves and roots to climb up and down special shafts,” said Arx. “Being plants, they can slip through the soil and hardly disturb it – even with a victim in tow.”

  “I guess we must’ve crashed through the top of one of those shafts,” said Iggy.

  “Do you suppose those filthy plants dragged my friends down here too?” asked Leefer.

  “Shhh!” Arx hissed. “I just heard something.”

  Teggs froze. “Fearblooms?”

  “Nope,” came a croaky voice from behind them. “Farmers!”

  Leefer shone his weedy torchbeam along the tunnel to reveal two more lambeosaurs in grubby checked shirts and dungarees. “Yokul! And Frisbee!” Leefer whooped and ran to greet them. “You’re alive! You’re not sick and crazy any more!”

  “Look out, all of you,” called Teggs, as a clutch of fearblooms came into sight. “Here come the creepy plant-creatures!” He reared up on his hind legs, ready to fight . . .

  But Yokul ran over and held him back. “No! You don’t understand.”

  “The fearblooms aren’t our enemies,” called Frisbee. “They saved us all from the big blue butterflies!”

  Teggs, Arx and Iggy looked at each other, dumbfounded.

  “I was wrong,” said Leefer. “They are still crazy.”

  “We are not,” Yokul insisted. He walked up to the fearblooms and stroked their leaves. The plants swayed happily. “See?
They mean us no harm.”

  Arx frowned. “But we saw them biting our friend and dragging her down here.”

  “And they bit me and Arx when we tried to help her,” Teggs added.

  One of the fearblooms wriggled up to Iggy and chomped him on the nose. “Ow! And now they’ve bitten me!” Iggy rubbed his hooter. “Ugh, I’ve got yellow slime all over my snout.”

  “It’s not attacking you, my friend,” said Frisbee calmly. “It is healing you.”

  Yokul nodded. “You’ve been touched by a butterfly, haven’t you?”

  “Er . . .” Iggy thought back. “Yeah, one landed on my nose for a second.”

  “A couple landed on me too,” Teggs recalled.

  “And me,” said Arx.

  “They didn’t just land on you,” said Frisbee. “They stung you without you noticing.”

  “I’ve studied the butterflies, you see,” Yokul explained. “Though they look beautiful, they are very poisonous. And their sting is enough to drive a dinosaur demented. Victims start saying ‘wibble’, bump themselves on the bonce and run about in a daze. Eventually, if no treatment is given they grow wild and nasty.” He sighed. “I’m afraid I became ill before I could warn my friends of the terrible truth. I’ve only just got better.”

  “Me too,” said Frisbee.

  “But where did these butterflies come from?” asked Teggs. “You were farming on Noxia-4 for years without any problem.”

  “Like the fearblooms, the butterflies were always here,” Frisbee informed him. “But their venom was weak, it couldn’t hurt a dinosaur.”

  “The fearblooms fed on the butterflies, then as now,” said Yokul. “Then something changed. The butterflies quickly grew more and more poisonous.”

  “We know one thing that changed,” said Leefer. “Sneaky carnivores landed here and killed our crops.”

  Frisbee gasped. “Then someone did come here from space to poison the land. I was right!”

  “But you were wrong to think that some robots could stop them,” said Iggy, rubbing his bruises. “These poisoners were hiding out in the forest the whole time.”

  “And not just hiding,” breathed Arx. “Gucklock said that he and his crew brewed up all sorts of vile poisonous mixtures while making their germ-spray. They must have dumped loads of toxic waste – polluting the forest around them. And I’ll bet the butterflies absorbed that pollution. Somehow, it made them change . . .”