Astrosaurs 8 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 Shore of Secrets

  Chapter Two: Terror With a Twist!

  Chapter Three: The Whole Tooth

  Chapter Four: Battle Beneath the Sea

  Chapter Five: A Soggy Surprise

  Chapter Six: Terror Down the Toilet

  Chapter Seven: In the Dung!

  Chapter Eight: Let Battle Begin!

  Chapter Nine: The Big Breakdown

  Chapter Ten: Boiling Point!

  Chapter Eleven: A Clean Getaway

  About the Author

  Also by listing

  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!

  The world of Aggadon is a dangerous place. Meteors crash down from its skies and strange monsters prowl its dark forests. The triceratops trapped there call on Arx for help – and when the astrosaurs arrive they find old enemies at work . . .

  For Kelly Hurst

  Teggs’s godmother and bringer of terror birds

  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.

  * * *

  Talking Dinosaur!

  How to say the prehistoric names in this book . . .

  STEGOSAURUS – STEG-oh-SORE-us

  HADROSAUR – HAD-roh-sore

  TRICERATOPS – try-SERRA-tops

  IGUANODON – ig-WA-noh-don

  DIMORPHODON – die-MORF-oh-don

  BACTROSAUR – BAK-truh-SORE

  MEGALODON – may-GAL-oh-don

  PLIOSAUR – Plie-oh-SORE

  * * *

  THE CREW OF THE DSS SAUROPOD

  CAPTAIN TEGGS STEGOSAUR

  ARX ORANO, FIRST OFFICER

  GIPSY SAURINE, COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

  IGGY TOOTH, CHIEF ENGINEER

  Chapter One

  THE SHORE OF SECRETS

  Captain Teggs Stegosaur stared out of the shuttle window at the picture-perfect view. Three suns lit the bright blue sky. The sea sparkled like it was full of emeralds. Tiny tropical islands lay dotted all around.

  “So this is the planet Atlantos,” he said, frowning. “It looks far too nice for a rough, tough mission. It’s the sort of place you go to have a . . . a . . .” He pulled a face, as if the words tasted bad. “A holiday!”

  Gipsy Saurine, his stripy communications officer, playfully threw a beach ball at his head. “A little holiday wouldn’t hurt you, Captain.”

  “Gipsy’s right,” said Iggy Tooth, his claws gripping the shuttle’s joystick as he steered. “You haven’t had a day off since you took charge of the Sauropod!”

  The DSS Sauropod was the best ship in the Dinosaur Space Service, and Iggy the iguanodon was its chief engineer. Right now it was up in orbit, waiting for Teggs and his team of astrosaurs to return. They flew the Sauropod all around the galaxy – the dashing stegosaurus’s appetite for adventure was even greater than his appetite for fresh ferns – and he ate those by the ton!

  “Who needs a day off?” said Teggs. “Righting wrongs and fighting villains isn’t hard work – it’s fun!” He batted the beach ball over to Arx Orano, his triceratops deputy. “What do you think, Arx?”

  Arx balanced the ball on the biggest of his three grey horns. “It’s just a feeling, Captain, but I think this mission may be one of our most dangerous yet.”

  Teggs looked at Arx thoughtfully. The triceratops’s instincts were strong, and if he smelled trouble ahead, he was probably right.

  Hooray!

  Iggy pointed to an island that was bigger than all the others. “There’s our destination,” he said. “Kleen Island.”

  “Well, we’ve got here at top speed in the shuttle, just as we were told,” said Teggs. “Now all we need to know is why. I wish Admiral Rosso would hurry up and tell us.” Rosso was the big-cheese barosaurus in charge of the entire DSS, who sent the astrosaurs on their missions.

  “I’m sure he’ll be in touch soon,” said Gipsy. She picked up a bucket and spade. “And while we’re waiting – we can play!”

  Iggy landed the shuttle on a beautiful beach, and the astrosaurs went outside into the triple-sunshine. The place was deserted. While Arx and Iggy explored over by some steep white cliffs, Gipsy went paddling at the sea’s edge. Teggs chased after her, splashing water over her with his big spiky tail. As he did so, he heard something crack beneath his feet.

  “Hey, this isn’t sand I’m standing on!” said Teggs, peering into the water. “It looks like . . . a tiled roof!”

  Gipsy frowned. “Why would anyone lay a roof under water?”

  “I don’t know,” said Teggs. He paddled over to the edge of the roof. Then he dipped his head beneath the waves for a few seconds and looked around. “A whole street has been built under here!” he spluttered, licking the salt from his lips. “Think of the problems the owners must have with damp!”

  “Maybe that’s why there’s no one about,” said Gipsy, glancing round nervously.

  “Hey, Captain!” called Iggy, breaking the silence.

  Teggs raced over. “What’s up?”

  Iggy showed him a large, sharp tooth. “Looks like something has been here before us.”

  Arx stared at Iggy’s find. “This came from a carnivore,” he said. “A very large carnivore.”

  “I wouldn’t want to meet its owner.” Gipsy shuddered. “Not unless all its teeth have fallen out!”

  “If there are carnivores about, maybe that explains why no one is here,” said Teggs. “We’d better get back to the shuttle and change into combat gear.”

  “So much for the holiday!” Iggy sighed as he started to lead the way back to their little ship.

  Suddenly, the ground began to tremble beneath them. Then it lurched. The astrosaurs staggered sideways.

  “What was that?” asked Iggy, as the tremors died
away. “An earthquake?”

  “I don’t think so.” Teggs frowned, shifting his weight between his four enormous feet. “The whole island feels like it’s tipped to one side!”

  Then a loud beep came from Gipsy’s wrist communicator, followed by a lot of tweets and whistles. “It’s the dimorphodon,” she said. The dimorphodon were the Sauropod’s flight crew, little flying reptiles who worked the ship’s controls. “They say that Admiral Rosso is ready to talk to us now.”

  “Tell them to beam his image over to the shuttle’s scanner,” said Teggs, striding back inside the little spaceship.

  Gipsy whistled back to the dimorphodon in their own language and, a few moments later, Admiral Rosso’s bespectacled face appeared on the scanner screen. Teggs saluted and the others crowded in around him.

  “Sorry I couldn’t speak to you about this mission sooner,” said Rosso. “I wanted to be sure of the facts.”

  “What are the facts, sir?” Teggs asked.

  “Kleen Island is the only island on Atlantos large enough to support life,” Rosso began. “It’s home to these peaceful creatures – bactrosaurs.”

  A picture of a prim, duck-billed dinosaur appeared on the screen.

  “I’ve heard of them,” said Gipsy. “They are famous for being the cleanest dinosaurs in space.”

  “That’s why they came to Atlantos,” said Rosso. “They live a very clean and simple life. There’s no pollution here. In fact, there’s no technology of any kind.”

  “Imagine that!” gasped Iggy. “No technology! That means no spaceships, no engines, no computers, nothing noisy and oily and speedy . . .” He stuck out his tongue. “How boring!”

  Rosso raised an eyebrow. “It might be boring to you, Iggy, but that’s how the bactrosaurs like it. And so do the meat-eating megalodon – or the megs, for short!”

  Teggs felt his spines tingle as the image of a massive shark-like creature now appeared on the scanner.

  “A sea monster!” gasped Gipsy.

  “That explains where the giant tooth came from,” said Iggy. “It must have washed up from the ocean. But how come carnivores are sharing a world with plant-eaters?”

  “Atlantos is in the Vegmeat Zone,” Arx reminded him, “the no-man’s land between the Vegetarian Sector and the Carnivore Sector. They have every right to be here.”

  “In fact, the megs were on Atlantos long before the bactrosaurs,” said Rosso. “But since they can only live in the sea and not on dry land, they couldn’t stop the bactrosaurs from taking Kleen Island. The two races have reluctantly lived side by side for hundreds of years.”

  “So what’s changed?” asked Teggs. “Why did we rush to get here?”

  Rosso’s face swam back into view on the screen. “The bactrosaurs’ ruler, Queen Soapi, sent an urgent message to the DSS.”

  “I thought they had no technology,” said Gipsy.

  “They don’t – she stuffed it in a bottle and used a giant catapult to send it into space.” Rosso tutted. “It took six months to reach us!”

  “Well?” Teggs was bursting with suspense. “What did she say?”

  “She said that the whole island was sinking into the sea!” Rosso looked more serious than Teggs had ever seen him. “That’s why I sent you along at once – while I checked her findings with space radar. The final results have just come in . . .”

  Iggy gulped. “Was she right?”

  Rosso nodded. “Almost half the island is now underwater!”

  “So, that was no earthquake we felt just now,” Arx realized. “That was the island sinking a little deeper.”

  “And that explains the roof we found beneath the water,” said Gipsy. “It’s just the top of a sunken building!”

  “But whoever heard of a sinking island?” cried Teggs.

  “Someone might be making it sink on purpose,” said Rosso. “Your mission is to find out who and to stop them – before the bactrosaurs’ home vanishes beneath the waves for good!”

  Chapter Two

  TERROR WITH A TWIST!

  As Rosso’s image faded from the scanner screen, Teggs led his crew back outside.

  Arx had picked up a special detector. “With this I can measure the next shockwave, and see how quickly the island is sinking.” He ducked into a nearby cave, and they could hear his feet splashing through water. “I’ll set it up in here, out of the way.”

  “I bet the megs are behind this,” said Iggy crossly. “They’re probably fed up with sharing the planet with ‘puny plant-eaters’. With Kleen Island underwater, the bactrosaurs will have nowhere else to go.”

  Gipsy nodded. “They’ll have to leave Atlantos. The megs will get the whole planet to themselves!”

  “But if it is them – how are they sinking the island?” said Arx, coming back out from the cave. “The megs are quite stupid even by carnivore standards. Plus, there’s no technology here – they can’t have built a rock-melting ray or a sea-bed smasher . . .”

  “We must be sure of all the facts before we take any action,” Teggs declared. “This is a serious situation. We can’t afford to make any blunders.”

  “You already have!” came a loud, throaty squawk. “And it’s the last one you shall ever make!”

  Suddenly a huge, menacing creature burst out from behind a rock to block the astrosaurs’ way. It stood upright on two strong legs. Its feet ended in terrifying talons. In place of arms it had thick, feathered wings. Its face was like that of a massive eagle, with glowing green eyes and a big, brutal beak.

  “A terror bird!” gasped Arx. “Admiral Rosso didn’t say anything about them being here!”

  Three more of the massive, feathery monsters sprang out from caves in the cliff face. Teggs flexed his spiky tail, ready for a fight. Terror birds were named with good reason. They were the biggest thugs in space, spreading fear, meanness and misery all across the Jurassic Quadrant.

  “What are you doing here?” growled Teggs.

  “The name’s Gastro,” the first terror bird announced. “And we don’t speak to megalodon spies. I bet King Fin sent you here to sink the island even faster!”

  “We aren’t spies. We’re astrosaurs!” Teggs protested.

  “As if!” Gastro took a menacing step towards them, and glanced back at his gang. “Looks like we’re going to have to teach these dinos a lesson, boys.” Teggs reared up, ready for battle.

  But, to his surprise, Gastro pulled a chalkboard from behind the rock and wrote: SINKING ISLANDS IS VERY NAUGHTY. The biggest bird produced a strange sort of guitar. It was made from string, spanners and an old sink plunger. He played it – very badly – while his friend squawked:

  “Working for meg-aaa-lo-don

  Is very naughty and not very nice!

  Stop us sinking or else we will have to

  Ask you not to in a very, very loud voice!”

  Teggs scratched his head. “Well, I’ve never heard of terror birds singing to their enemies before!”

  “I think I’d sooner fight them!” Iggy had covered his ears. “These jokers couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket!”

  “Had enough, eh?” Gastro smiled grimly. “Well, go back to your meg masters and tell them to stop sinking this island – or Gordon here will sing you the next fifty verses!”

  “But you’ve got it all wrong!” cried Teggs.

  “How dare you – Gordon wrote that song himself!” Gastro puffed out his feathery chest. “I can see I’m going to have to take very serious measures.” Suddenly he pulled out a pointed dunce’s cap. “Put this on your head and go and stand in that cave for five minutes.”

  “You’re crazy!” cried Teggs, ducking as the terror bird tried to put the cap on his head.

  “Wear it!” squawked Gastro.

  “No!” Teggs grappled with the terror bird. He could feel the fearsome strength in Gastro’s muscles – and yet the bird seemed careful not to hurt him. Iggy grabbed hold of Gastro too, and so Gordon grabbed hold of him. Gipsy responded by grabbing Gordon, and an
other terror bird grabbed her.

  Teggs wasn’t sure if they were having a fight or doing the conga!

  But the next moment the slapdash struggle was halted by a humongous hoot: “Stop!”

  At once, the terror birds fell to their knees, meek and mild.

  Teggs turned to find that two figures had appeared on the beach behind them. He recognized them from Admiral Rosso’s briefing – they were bactrosaurs. One was plainly dressed in a white robe, but the other was wearing a crisp golden cape. A crown of shiny leaves sat on her head-crest, and she wore pink rubber gloves on her hooves.

  “Hello!” said Teggs. “My name is Captain Teggs Stegosaur of the DSS Sauropod, and this is my crew.” Gipsy, Arx and Iggy gathered round him. “You must be Queen Soapi.”

  “I am indeed,” she said in a rather royal voice. “I thought I heard a horrible, dirty, old spaceship arrive so I came to investigate.”

  “Dirty? What a cheek!” Iggy grumbled.

  Gipsy nudged him in the ribs. “You mean, ‘What a cheek, Your Majesty!’”

  “I hope you’re not fighting on my island,” Queen Soapi went on. “It’s rough, and dirty. I mean, just look at your uniform, Teggs. It’s all mucky!” She turned to the other bactrosaur. “Janice, my hoof-maiden, wash down the captain!”

  Janice swiftly attacked Teggs’s top with a bucket of warm soapy water and a scrubbing brush.

  “Hey! That tickles!” Teggs protested.

  “Now, who else needs a quick scrub?” said Queen Soapi. “Perhaps I should spray you all with disinfectant, just to be on the safe side.”

  “Please, Your Majesty, we weren’t fighting,” said Gastro. “The lads and I were just trying to stop these sharky spies being so naughty. They expect us to believe they are astrosaurs!”

  “You silly big birds,” said Queen Soapi fondly. “I’m sure you meant well, Gastro, but these are astrosaurs – come to help us in our hour of need! I sent for them ages ago.”

  “You did?” Gastro narrowed his eyes at Teggs. “Oh. It seems I owe you all an apology.” He bowed down to the astrosaurs. “I am truly sorry. I was only trying to protect our little island.”

  “Our little island?” Gipsy couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  “These terror birds live here,” Queen Soapi explained. “They have done so for almost a year.”