Astrosaurs 2 Page 2

  “Those eggs on the stage were fakes!” Sog chuckled. “They were just props! I brought them along to spice up my talk.”

  Teggs whooped with relief. “Then where are the real eggs?”

  “Here!” came a low, lazy voice from the crowd. Two large, long-necked creatures stomped into view. Teggs recognized them from the professor’s hologram – they were plateosaurus. They each carried a large shiny box around their necks.

  “I am Coo,” said one of the dinosaurs.

  “And I am Dippa,” said the other, a female. “We are the guardians of the eggs.”

  Coo bobbed his head at the box round Dippa’s neck. “I watch her eggs.”

  “And I watch his,” Dippa explained.

  “So now the mission can begin!” Professor Sog was still merrily leaping about. “Oh, I’d love to see King Albu’s face when he tries to eat those eggs!” Way out in space, at the sticky centre of his royal ship, King Albu sat waiting on his golden throne. Thick drool bubbled out of his mouth and stained his royal robes at the thought of his next meal – fried plateosaurus eggs on toast!

  King Albu waited.

  And waited.

  His tummy rumbled loud enough to make the walls shake. And still he waited.

  At last, King Albu could bear it no more. He turned to the nearest slave and shouted: “Fetch me Prince Goopo – now!”

  The slave rushed from the room. Less than a minute later, Prince Goopo came in. He looked very worried.

  “Where are my eggs?” hissed King Albu.

  Prince Goopo gulped. “I think . . . er . . . I think Cook was having a little trouble bringing out their full flavour . . .”

  “Fetch me the cook at once!” screamed King Albu.

  Prince Goopo crawled out of the room at top speed. In seconds, he had returned with the cook, who looked red-faced and nervous. “Where’s my supper?” roared the king.

  “Erm . . .” The cook crossed his legs like he needed the toilet. “They are . . . er . . . very tough to cook.”

  “So?” growled King Albu. “Just serve ’em up they are!”

  Forgive me, Your Egginess,” said the cook. “But I really don’t think—”

  “Look, Cook. I like ‘em soft. I like ‘em hard. I like sucking out the yolk with a straw. I like paddling in the egg whites then licking my feet clean.”

  The slaves nodded solemnly. They had seen him do such things lots of times.

  “I like ‘em raw. I like ‘em fried. I like ‘em thin. I like ‘em wide.” King Albu narrowed his eyes and widened his mouth. “In short, I like my eggs, Cook! And I want a piled-up plate of plateosaurus eggs right now!”

  The cook sighed and went outside. He returned with a silver trolley piled high with a grassy salad – and several giant eggs.

  “At last!” drooled the king. He grasped an egg in both hands. Then he opened his mouth as wide as it would go, and popped it inside.

  Where it stuck!

  The egg could not be crushed or chewed or slurped down or guzzled. It stuck right in his throat. King Albu’s scaly neck looked like a snake that had swallowed a rugby ball!

  “Urph!” he choked. “That’s not an egg! It’s a rock! A painted rock!” He ran around, clutching the large lump in his neck. “You idiot, Goopo! I send you out for eggs and you bring back boulders!”

  With a strangled yell, King Albu choked up the enormous fake egg and kicked it across the room.

  “My stomach wants plateosaurus eggs!” he panted. “And my stomach will not take no for an answer! Get your brothers together, Goopo. We’re going to get our hands on those eggs – whatever it takes!”

  Chapter Four

  THE LONG, LONG JOURNEY

  Back on Odo Minor, Iggy the engineer was waiting for his captain in the Sauropod’s shuttle. When Teggs poked his head through the door, the iguanodon saluted stiffly.

  “Ready for boarding, Captain!” he cried.

  “It’s going to be a tight squeeze, Iggy!” grinned Teggs. He came aboard, with Gipsy close behind. Then Coo and Dippa squeezed in through the shuttle’s doorway. They shuffled close together and Professor Sog hopped aboard beside them.

  “I still can’t believe the oviraptors went to all that trouble just to steal a lot of painted rocks!” laughed Teggs. “That’ll give King Albu an upset tummy!”

  “It sure will,” laughed Gipsy, as the shuttle blasted off into space. “And meanwhile, we’ll make sure the real eggs reach Platus Two – safe and sound and ready for hatching!”

  Soon the Sauropod was racing through space.

  On the flight deck, Teggs sat in the control pit. A feeling of excitement was building in his belly. His mission had begun. And with the eggs almost ready to hatch, there was no time to lose!

  Arx turned on the scanner. Tiny stars gleamed in the darkness of space.

  “That’s where we’re headed,” he said. “The very edge of the galaxy.”

  Professor Sog nodded his little head. “I’m looking forward to seeing Platus Two!”

  Gipsy wrinkled her snout, puzzled. “You mean you haven’t been there before?”

  “No one’s been there for hundreds of years,” Sog told her. “Not since it was first discovered by the Jurassic Explorers.”

  “Wow,” breathed Teggs. The Jurassic Explorers were his heroes. They were the reason he had become an astrosaur. Long before he was born, they had discovered and mapped the entire Jurassic Quadrant, where all dinosaurs now lived. The only thing they had never found was a star dragon – a huge, winged animal that was said to live somewhere in space. It was Teggs’s dream that maybe one day he would find a star dragon himself.

  “Why has no one ever gone to live on Platus Two?” asked Gipsy.

  “It’s too small and far away from everywhere else,” said Sog.

  “So we’ll be the first spaceship to go there in centuries!” Teggs realized.

  Arx nodded. “I wonder what it’s like?”

  “It’ll be lovely, just you wait and see!” smiled Sog. “The explorers planted lots of seeds there. After hundreds of years it should be very green indeed!” He chuckled. “Yes, Platus Two may be too far away to matter to most dinosaurs. But it’s the perfect spot for a small herd of peaceful plateosaurus!”

  “Hope so,” sighed Coo. “A new home would be nice, wouldn’t it, Dippa?”

  “It would, Coo,” Dippa agreed.

  Just then the ship shook with a sudden clunk! The dimorphodon flight crew squawked and then flapped in panic about the room.

  “Battle stations!” cried Teggs.

  Arx squinted at his instruments. “No sign hostile ships,” he reported. “Only a meteor, bouncing off the side of the ship.”

  “Oh,” said Teggs, a tiny bit disappointed.

  “Funny,” said Arx. “It seems to be following us.”

  “It must have got caught in our gravity field,” said Professor Sog.

  “I suppose so,” Arx nodded. “But I’ve never known a meteor do that before.”

  “We’re out in deep space now,” said Gipsy. She looked a bit spooked. “Who knows what we’ll find out here?”

  “We’ll find Platus Two, that’s what!” said Sog firmly. “Don’t let your imagination run away with you, child!”

  But as the Sauropod sped on to its destination, Gipsy found it was hard not to.

  Days passed by and the stars grew fewer and fainter.

  Space grew blacker and blacker.

  And Captain Teggs began to grow bored. For the first few days he'd kept a careful watch for star dragons. But he could find no sign of one anywhere.

  By the end of the first week, the scanner was showing nothing but blackness. The Sauropod was like a big fish swimming through the darkest sea in the universe.

  “Hey, that’s strange,” said Arx, looking at a computer screen. “We’re still dragging along that meteor we bumped into.”

  “Never mind boring old meteors,” said Teggs. “Who’s for another game of I–Spy?”

  The days
dragged on. But at the end of the second week, they could at last see Platus Two on the scanners.

  And Arx made a strange discovery.

  He called everyone to the flight deck to tell them about it.

  “Well, Arx?” said Teggs, settling back into the control pit after a long doze.

  “I’ve been studying Platus Two closely, Captain,” the triceratops announced. “And something’s wrong. I’ve checked my findings against the notes made by the Jurassic Explorers – and they’re completely different!”

  Teggs frowned as he chewed some moss. “Different in what way?” Arx looked at him. “Since the Jurassic Explorers visited Platus Two, it has grown ten times bigger!”

  “Impossible!” Sog said crossly. He tried to fold his arms but they wouldn’t quite reach, which made him even crosser. “Planets do not grow like living things! Arx, you must be wrong! Your instruments are faulty!”

  At that, Arx got a bit huffy, and Teggs quickly butted in before a big row started.

  “Can you show us Platus Two on the scanners, Arx?” he asked.

  Arx jabbed a button with his horn. On the screen, Platus Two glowed bright against black space. Pure white and smooth, it looked like a giant snooker ball.

  Then a rocky shape drifted into view.

  “It’s that stupid meteor again,” grumbled Arx.

  “But I thought it was trailing behind us,” said Teggs. “How come it’s now heading straight for us?”

  A split-second later, Teggs got his answer. Everyone jumped as the meteor suddenly split right open! Bursting from inside it – like a terrifying creature hatching from a giant egg – was a familiar whisk-like ship.

  “Oviraptors!” gasped Gipsy. Arx nodded grimly. “They disguised their ship as a meteor and tagged along all the way here!”

  “They want our eggs!” wailed Coo.

  “Oh dear,” said Dippa.

  Suddenly the oviraptor ship fired its lasers. Two balls of flame streaked towards them.

  “Red alert!” shouted Teggs. “We’re under attack!”

  Chapter Five

  LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

  Twin bolts of fire slammed into the Sauropod. The ship shook like a jelly in an earthquake. Then it tipped up. Coo and Dippa screamed, their egg boxes clanging together like giant bells. Professor Sog was sent somersaulting up to the ceiling. The dimorphodon flight crew screeched and flapped into each other.

  Teggs fought to keep his balance in the control pit. Flapping reptiles collided above him. The squawk of the alarm pterosaur echoed round the ship: “Red alert! Red alert!’

  “Damage report!” cried Teggs.

  Iggy came tumbling out of the lift and onto the flight deck. “Message from the engine room, Captain!” he yelled. “Engines have been hit!”

  “We can’t get away now!” cried Sog, as a pair of flying reptiles helped him down from the ceiling.

  “Fire lasers,” snapped Teggs.

  “Lasers have jammed!” Gipsy reported.

  “All right then, fire the dung torpedoes!” he ordered.

  Gipsy flicked a row of switches with her tail. “Firing now!”

  On the scanner, a brown explosion lit up the oviraptor ship. “Direct hit!" cheered Arx.

  “That should cause a stink on the oviraptor ship!” grinned Iggy.

  “Message coming in,” Gipsy reported. “It’s King Albu!”

  “Put him on screen,” Teggs said.

  Everyone watched as an ugly, stubby little creature appeared on the screen. He wore a large crown on his head and an even larger clothes peg on his snout.

  Teggs smiled grimly. “I see that you’ve felt – and smelled – what our dung torpedoes can do, King Albu. Leave now, and we’ll say no more about it.”

  King Albu shook his head. “Doo hab dum-fing I vant, Dap-tin,” he hissed.

  “Er . . . pardon?” asked Teggs.

  The royal oviraptor pulled the peg from his nose. “I said, you have something I want, Captain!”

  “You really came all this way just to eat the plateosaurus eggs?” Teggs shook his head sadly. “You have to be crazy!”

  “I certainly am,” King Albu agreed. “So hand them over – or else my power poachers will turn you into toast!”

  Teggs shook his head. “Try that and the next round of dung torpedoes will knock your noses clean off!”

  “I don’t think so, Captain.” King Albu smiled nastily. “Your engines run on dung, and we’ve just blasted them open. You can’t afford to waste any more fuel.”

  Iggy sighed. “He’s right, Captain!”

  “Oh well,” sighed Coo. “I suppose we’d better let him have the eggs, then.”

  “Yes, that’s probably best,” agreed Dippa. “Never mind.”

  “Never mind?” Teggs stared at them. “This is the future of your people we’re talking about!”

  “But there’s nothing we can do,” said Coo.

  ‘There’s always something we can do,” said Teggs bravely.

  “Like what?” asked Professor Sog.

  Everyone looked at Teggs.

  “Well . . . we need to repair our engines. And for that, we need to land.” He nodded firmly. “We must head for Platus Two. Now!”

  “But we can’t outrun King Albu, Captain!” said Iggy.

  “We have to try!” Teggs snapped. “We might just lose them in the clouds. Maybe we’ll buy enough time to fix the damage.”

  “It’s a brave plan, Captain,” said Arx with a small smile.

  Gipsy clapped her claws together and called to the flight crew. “Let’s do it, team!”

  The Sauropod‘s engines hummed weakly. With a lurch, they were off.

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Captain!” snarled King Albu. He put the clothes peg back on his nose and turned to his crew. “Dopen vire!” he shouted.

  “Eh?” Teggs frowned.

  An ear-splitting explosion ripped through the Sauropod. The whole ship shook even harder than before.

  “He said, ‘Open fire’,” said Arx helpfully.

  “Approaching Platus Two,” said Gipsy. “Entering clouds now.”

  “Take that oviraptor off the screen!” said Teggs. “Let’s have a look!”

  King Albu’s evil face was replaced by a close-up view of the cloudy white planet.

  “Take us in low,” Teggs ordered. “We’ll try to steer round behind him and stay out of sight.”

  “Such a shame,” sighed Sog. “We’re already fighting over this calm and peaceful world.”

  “Er . . . calm and peaceful, you say?” echoed Teggs, looking at the screen.

  They had broken through the clouds. Now they could see what the planet was really like.

  It was horrible.

  The pale ground was smooth and speckled, but criss-crossed with huge cracks as if it was ready to fall apart. There were no hills or trees, no flowers or animals. Everywhere was flat and featureless, and a fierce storm was raging overhead. Lightning hurled bright daggers down at the ground. Great fountains of sticky lava spurted up to the clouds in revenge.

  Dippa sighed. “Not very green, is it?”

  “But – but this is terrible!” squawked Professor Sog. “The explorers planted seeds! Why haven’t they grown?”

  “Now will you believe me?” said Arx. “This can’t be Platus Two at all. It’s a different world!”

  “No!” Sog insisted. “I checked the star charts! This is right where Platus Two should be!”

  Coo and Dippa just stared sadly at the screen.

  “Captain!” shouted Gipsy. “The oviraptors have found us! Look!”

  King Albu’s ship was swooping out of the clouds towards them.

  “We have to go faster!” Teggs cried.

  “We can’t!” yelled Iggg.

  Then, just as everything seemed hopeless, a jagged blast of yellow light struck the oviraptor ship – and it fell from the sky like a stone.

  “Lightning!” beamed Teggs. “King Albu’s ship has been struck by l
ightning!”

  “Serves them right,” said Iggy.

  “We’re saved!” Professor Sog did a little victory jig. “Yippee!”

  But suddenly, the scanner glowed white-hot. A crisp crackling noise rasped through the air. Sparks flew round the flight deck. Sog stopped dancing, and the dimorphodon flapped round in panic.

  “Ooops,” said Arx. “Now we’ve been struck by lightning!”

  The engines spluttered and died.

  “We’re going down!” shouted Iggy.

  “Attention, crew!” Teggs yelled. “Brace yourselves! We’re going to crash!”

  “We’re going to crash!” squawked the alarm pterosaur. “ We’re going to crash!”

  On the scanner, the ground came rushing up to meet them . . .

  Chapter Six

  THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET

  Ka-boom!

  Tumbling out of control, the Sauropod scraped against the smooth surface of the planet.

  B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Bang!

  The ship flipped up and over. It splattered through one of the red-hot geysers spurting out of the ground.

  “She can’t take much more!” howled Iggy.

  “Neither can we!” gasped Dippa.

  A long, wide crack had opened up beneath them. The Sauropod fell through the crack and started bouncing between the sides. Then a fresh spurt of sticky lava pushed them high up into the air.

  Teggs braced himself. “What goes up, must come down!”

  At last, the final crash came.

  No one on board the Sauropod had ever heard a noise like it.

  It was a crumpling, rumpling, bone-crushing, head-mushing, grinding, gruelling, wrenching, bottom-clenching smash.

  Then the ship was still.

  Slowly, Coo raised his long, aching neck. “I wish I’d stayed at home,” he sighed.

  “Now we know how the meteor felt when it smashed into the Earth,” groaned Teggs.

  Professor Sog peered out from under a chair. “The eggs!” he twittered. “Dippa, Coo – what about the eggs?”

  The two plateosaurus checked their egg boxes.

  “Unscrambled,” Dippa reported.

  “Wish I could say the same for my brains,” said Teggs.

  Iggy waddled over to the communicator. “Calling engine room, this is Iggy. Are you all right, boys?”

  Assorted moans and groans came from the speaker.