Astrosaurs 5 Read online




  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Warning! Think you know about dinosaurs?

  Talking Dinosaur!

  The Crew of the DSS Sauropod

  Jurassic Quadrant Map

  Chapter One: The Long Squawk

  Chapter Two: In a Flap

  Chapter Three: The Coming of Grandum

  Chapter Four: The Meeting of the Flock

  Chapter Five: The Trials Begin

  Chapter Six: Riddles, Riddles, Riddles

  Chapter Seven: Head in the Clouds

  Chapter Eight: The Mammoth Masterplan

  Chapter Nine: Battle in the Sky!

  Chapter Ten: A Flappy Ending?

  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!

  How can a world full of dino-birds forget how to fly? The astrosaurs uncover a deadly secret in the skies above Skwark Major where Teggs must battle for his life . . .

  For Matthew and Andrew

  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 Dinosar!

  ANKYLOSAUR – an-KI-loh-SORE

  STYGIMOLOCH – STIJ-i-MOH-lok

  PTEROSAUR – TEH-roh-sore

  DIMORPHODON – die-MORF-oh-don

  TRICERATOPS – try-SERRA-tops

  IGUANODON – ig-WA-noh-don

  NYCTOSAURUS – NIK-toh-SORE-rus

  QUETZALCOATLUS – kwet-zal-COAT-lus

  RHAMPHORHYNCHUS – RAM-foh-RING-kus

  SORDES – SORE-deez

  PTERODACTYL – teh-roh-DACT-il

  THE CREW OF THE DSS SAUROPOD

  Chapter One

  THE LONG SQUAWK

  It was midnight on board the DSS Sauropod.

  All was quiet as the ship soared through space.

  A few astrosaurs were working late. Ankylosaurs tinkered with the ship’s mighty engines. Stygimolochs mopped and cleaned the corridors. The alarm pterosaur made a cup of swamp tea to help her stay awake.

  And then a strange sound started up.

  It was a weird, straining ROAR of a sound. Like a T. rex trying to lay a two-ton egg. Like a thousand chickens singing from the bottom of a well. Like a billion beaks bashing at a battleship.

  The sound blared from the Sauropod’s speakers all round the ship. The ankylosaurs dropped their tools in surprise. The shocked stygimolochs threw their mops and buckets in the air.

  The alarm pterosaur screeched but no one cloud hear her over the dreadful din.

  Captain Teggs Stegosaur jumped out of bed and galloped to the nearest lift, still in his pyjamas. He was a dashing, orange-brown stegosaurus who feared nothing – except perhaps an empty larder. For Teggs, the best things in life were eating and having adventures, ideally at the same time. But being woken at midnight by a sinister sound was enough to make even him lose his appetite.

  As he reached the lift he saw that Gipsy Saurine had got there ahead of him. This bright stripy hadrosaur was in charge of the Sauropod’s communications. She took her hooves from her ears to salute him.

  “Never mind that,” Teggs told her. “If my hands could reach my ears, I’d cover them too! We’ve got to stop that terrible noise!’

  “I’m sure the dimorphodon are working out what’s going on right now,” said Gipsy.

  The dimorphodon, a type of pterosaur, were the Sauropod’s flight crew. There were fifty of the little flying reptiles on duty right now. With their nimble claws and delicate beaks they worked the ship’s controls swiftly and surely.

  Or rather, they usually did.

  As Teggs and Gipsy burst out of the lift and onto the flight deck, they found the dimorphodon were standing as still as statues.

  “What can have happened to them?” cried Gipsy.

  “Quick, shut off the speakers,” Teggs told her. “I think my ears are about to explode!”

  Gipsy rushed to her post and pressed a button. A sudden silence fell over the flight deck. Then the lift doors swished open and a green triceratops burst in. It was Arx Orano, Teggs’s first officer. He had dressed so quickly, he’d forgotten to take off his nightcap.

  “Are we under attack?” he gasped.

  “I don’t know!” Teggs turned to Gipsy. “Any sign of enemy ships?”

  “None, sir.” She peered closely at her instruments. “The signal is coming from a long way away . . .”

  “See if you can pinpoint the source of it,” Teggs ordered. He was inspecting the dimorphodon. Their little eyes were goggly and glazed, and their beaks hung open.

  “They’re in some kind of trance,” said Arx, sad to see his flapping friends in such a state. “That sound – perhaps it’s some kind of weapon!”

  “But we haven’t been affected.” Teggs frowned. “Have we?”

  Just then, Iggy Tooth stomped out of the lift. Iggy was a stocky iguanodon, the Sauropod’s chief engineer. He was also very good in a fight – and it looked like he was ready for one now!

  “I was having a brilliant dream about beating the raptors in a space-car race,” he grumbled. “Then that nasty noise made me fall out of bed! What was it?”

  “We’re trying to find out,” said Teggs, crossing to Gipsy’s side. “But first I’d better talk to the crew!”

  “Good idea,” Iggy agreed. “After a scare like that, we’ll have enough extra dung on board to power the ship for a whole month!”

  Gipsy flicked a switch and Teggs’s voice boomed over the rattling speakers. “This is your captain! Don’t panic. Everything is under control.”

  But suddenly the flight crew snapped back into life. They squealed and squawked and flapped all around, working the controls at top speed.

  “What’s got into them?” gasped Gipsy.

  The floor lurched beneath their feet. “We’re changing course!” said Arx.

  “Stop it!” shouted Teggs. “We’re on our way to meet Admiral Rosso at DSS Headquarters! You can’t just steer us somewh
ere else!”

  But the dimorphodon wouldn’t listen.

  Gipsy was astounded. “They’ve never disobeyed an order before!”

  “I’ll sort them out,” said Iggy. He jumped up and grabbed the dimorphodon team leader – a plucky little reptile they nicknamed Sprite. “Stop that flapping and explain yourself!”

  Sprite wriggled in Iggy’s hands. He chittered and squeake.

  Gipsy spoke fluent pterosaur, and so she quickly translated. “He says that the sound we all heard was the Long Squawk.”

  “The what?” asked Teggs.

  Again, Sprite clucked and squealed. The rest of the dimorphodon waited in mid-air, but Teggs could see they were dying to get on.

  “The Long Squawk is a special signal, only sent in an extreme emergency,” Gipsy explained. “It’s an urgent summons from the High Flapper!”

  “The who?” asked Teggs.

  “The ruler of Squawk Major, the pterosaurs’ home planet,” said Arx. “Whatever’s happening, Captain, it must be pretty serious. The Long Squawk hasn’t been heard for two hundred years. When they hear the signal, all pterosaurs – whatever their breed, wherever they are – must return home at once.”

  “Return home at once!” cried the alarm pterosaur over the speakers. “Full speed ahead! Return home at once!”

  “I see what you mean!” said Teggs.

  “I’ve traced the source of the sound, Captain,” Gipsy reported. “It is coming from Squawk Major.”

  “The High Flapper must need help very badly,” said Arx.

  Sprite gave a sad little cheep.

  Teggs nodded. “All right, Iggy, let Sprite go.”

  Sprite fluttered free with a grateful smile.

  “And get your team to shovel all that fresh dung straight into the engines,”

  Teggs continued. “We’ll need it if we’re going to stay at top speed all the way to Squawk Major.”

  Iggy saluted. “Right away, Captain!”

  At once, the dimorphodon flapped back into action, working the Sauropod’s controls while Arx supervised.

  “Won’t Admiral Rosso be cross with us?” wondered Gipsy.

  “I’m sure he’ll understand,” said Teggs. “It sounds like this is a real emergency.” He chomped on a beakful of ferns and smiled at the thought of a new adventure. “There’s no time to lose!”

  Chapter Two

  IN A FLAP

  As it turned out, Admiral Rosso was glad the Sauropod was already speeding to Squawk Major.

  “You’re captain of our fastest ship, Teggs,” the old barosaurus remarked. “As soon as I heard the Long Squawk, I planned to send you there. You must help Lady Shazz, the High Flapper, in any way you can!”

  Iggy was pleased too, once he’d had a nap. “Squawk Major is the planet next door to Morass Minor,” he said. “They hold the Mammoth Space-Car Rally there every month.”

  Arx didn’t know much about sport. “Do you mean ‘mammoth’ as in really big, or ‘mammoth’ as in large, woolly elephant-thing with tusks?”

  “Both!” grinned Iggy. “Once we’ve sorted out this flap with the pterosaurs, maybe we could pop across and watch the races!”

  “Maybe,” said Teggs. He was worried. Lady Shazz had refused to say what was wrong until they could talk face to face.

  “Approaching Squawk Major now, Captain,” said Arx.

  “A ptero-taxi just called,” Gipsy added. “They’re ready to pick us up,”

  Teggs clambered out of his control pit. “Time to go,’ he said. “But first, Gipsy, put a call through to Alass.”

  “Connecting you now, sir,” she told him.

  “Yes, Captain?” asked Alass, as her face appeared on the main screen. She was the ankylosaurus in charge of security.

  Teggs smiled. “Since the dimorphodon are coming to Squawk Major with Gipsy, Arx, Iggy and me, I’m leaving you in charge until we get back.”

  Alass gave him her smartest salute. “Understood, sir!” “Right, then,” Teggs told the rest of his crew. “Let’s take that taxi!”

  Spaceships were banned from the skies of Squawk Major. The planet’s air was pure and fresh, and smelly engines would spoil it for the millions of pterosaurs flying happily through the sweet-smelling skies. So any visitors wanting to land on the planet had to leave their spaceship in orbit and take a ptero-taxi – a special space-carriage pulled by a team of pterosaurs.

  Teggs, Arx, Gipsy and Iggy all squeezed on board. The dimorphodon and the alarm pterosaur flapped in after them. Then the shuttle bay doors swung open, and the two drivers – a pair of rugged nyctosaurus in spacesuits – flapped off into space, towing the taxi behind them.

  Squawk Major lay below them like a giant orange pudding, streaked with wisps of creamy white cloud. A little tear of joy trickled down the alarm pterosaur’s beak at the sight of her home.

  Soon they were soaring through the rosy skies.

  “Where is everybody?” Teggs wondered. “This is a planet of flying reptiles. But I don’t see anyone flying!”

  “Maybe we’re too high up,” Gipsy suggested.

  But as the minutes passed, the skies stayed empty. Sprite chirped worriedly. The alarm pterosaur patted him on the head with her wing.

  “We’re only three miles above the ground,” Arx reported. “It should be quite busy round here by now.”

  “Look on the bright side,” said Iggy. “At least with an empty sky we can’t possibly crash into anything!”

  But suddenly, there were two noisy squawks from outside.

  “What’s happening?” cried Gipsy.

  “The pilots!” Teggs pointed to the nyctosaurus through the window. “They’ve stopped flapping!”

  At once, the ptero-taxi dropped like a stone.

  “They’d better start flapping, and fast!” said Iggy.

  The nyctosaurus screeched loudly.

  “They can’t!” cried Gipsy. “They – they say they’ve forgotten how to fly!”

  “Forgotten?” Arx gulped. “How can that be? They were fine a minute ago!”

  The carriage was falling faster and faster.

  “If they don’t remember soon, we’ll all be squashed flat!” cried Iggy. “And so will anyone beneath us!”

  “We’ve got one chance,” said Teggs. He whacked his spiny tail against the window and smashed out the glass. “Dimorphodon – take over!”

  At once, Sprite led the valiant flight crew outside. Flying against the wind, they managed to take control of the taxi from the helpless nyctosaurus. The dimorphodon were far smaller, of course, but there were fifty of them. They started flapping for their lives – and the lives of their caption and crew!

  “We’re slowing down!” gasped Arx. “But not fast enough!”

  Gipsy shut her eyes as the ground came rushing up to meet them.

  Then the alarm pterosaur, who was not the bravest of flying reptiles, hopped out through the window. Flapping furiously, she lent her wings to the struggle.

  With a rush of relief, Teggs felt the carriage coming back under control. “They’re doing it!”

  “Thank goodness,” beamed Gipsy, as the flock of pterosaurs towed them onwards. “We’re going to be all right!”

  Iggy wiped his brow. “And I’m going to keep my mouth shut for the rest of the trip!”

  But Arx was still lost in thought. “How can a pterosaur forget how to fly? That’s like Captain Teggs forgetting how to eat!”

  “Pardon?” said Teggs through a mouthful of ferns.

  The nyctosaurus could no longer fly, but at least they could give directions. Puffing and panting, the dimorphodon and the alarm pterosaur steered the carriage to the majestic home of the High Flapper – the Palace of Perches.

  It towered over the castles and courtyards of the pterosaur city. It was beautifully built from bright blue rock, and was as big as a cathedral. Hundreds of stone flagpoles jutted from the walls, which were covered in carvings of beasts and birds.

  “There’s no door,” said Teggs.
“How do we get in?”

  “Through the roof!” said Arx.

  They circled overhead and swooped down through a large hole in the great glass ceiling. Inside, was a single, enormous room, filled with fruit trees and flowers. And there, right in the middle, sat the enormous Lady Shazz, the High Flapper.

  Perched on a giant purple cushion, she was a regal sight: a crown upon her head, her long beak raised skyward, her leathery wings stretched out wider than a jet plane.

  The ptero-taxi touched down beside her. At once, servants flapped over with cool drinks and insects for the exhausted pilots.

  Teggs led the others from the carriage, and bowed. “Greetings, your Highness.”

  “Greetings, astrosaurs,” trilled Shazz. (Being the High Flapper, she spoke fluent dinosaur.) “Thank you for coming all this way.”

  “We would have got here sooner,” said Teggs. “But halfway here, your pilots forgot how to fly!”

  “Oh no!” Shazz slumped back onto her cushion. “Not them too! My last pair of plucky pilots!”

  Arx frowned. “You mean this has happened before?”

  “It’s been happeing for weeks!” she sighed. “Every day, millions more of us forget how to fly!”

  She gave a miserable squawk and buried her beak in her massive wings. However hard they try, they simply can’t remember how to do it!”

  Chapter Three

  THE COMING OF GRANDUM

  “So that’s why the skies are empty,” Iggy realized.

  Gipsy couldn’t believe it. “But they’re pterosaurs! Surely they can learn how to fly again?”

  “They’ve tried and tried but they just can’t get the hang of it.” Shazz shed a silvery tear. “This morning, I thought I would fly over and teach some of them myself. But I fell flat on my face! Even I have forgotten how to fly! A High Flapper without her flap!” She wiped her long beak on an even longer wing. “And as if all this wasn’t bad enough, the Trials are almost due to start!”

  “Trials?” asked Teggs.

  “The High Flapper Trials!” Shazz wailed. “I have ruled Squawk Major for almost ten years. According to pterosaur law, it is time for a new High Flapper to be chosen. A special contest will be held on Beak Mountain in one week’s time. It is open to all flying reptiles. They will compete for the crown in trials of skill, strength and speed . . . But so far, not one person has entered!”

  Arx nodded. “Because none of them can fly!”