Astrosaurs 15

by Steve Cole

  “Actually, demented dreams are catching up with us!” Teggs corrected her. “Thanks to General Loki.”

  “We’ve been going round the ship telling everyone to hide in their rooms,” she went on. “But now there’s something nasty on our trail.”

  “What is it?” Iggy asked. “Raptors? Bananas?”

  Alass shook her head with a fearful look in her eyes. “Dung!”

  The next moment, an enormous ball of squishy, quivering dung squelched into sight! Its black-and-brown bulk filled the corridor from floor to ceiling, and its stink poisoned the air.

  “Great galaxies!” Teggs clutched his throat. “Who in the world would ever dream of something like that?”

  One of the guards blushed and sheepishly put up his claw.

  Without warning, the dung-monster spat a huge pile of steaming dung at Arx and Gipsy. They jumped aside just in time.

  “Perhaps it’s another easy-to-pop monster,” said Iggy hopefully. He swiped it with his tail – which came out covered with steaming, stinky sludge. “Ugh!”

  “Nice try.” Teggs pulled Iggy away. “But that thing is too big to bash.”

  “It will smother us all,” Gipsy groaned. “There’s no way past!”

  THUMP! THUMP! They could hear the kraggle-scruncher hopping up the stairs behind them.

  SQUEEEELLLCH! Ahead of them, the deadly dung-ball rolled closer.

  “Uh-oh!” Arx swallowed hard. “Now we’re trapped!”

  Just then, the giant, flying mop came whizzing back, homing in on the astrosaurs. “Oi!” Iggy ducked aside and grabbed hold of it crossly. “As if we didn’t have enough problems!”

  “Hang on, Iggy,” said Teggs, helping him hold onto the marauding mop. “This could be just what we need!”

  Gipsy looked puzzled. “Even a giant mop is no good against that dung-demon.”

  “True,” said Teggs. “But it’s raising our chances of survival through the roof!” Twisting hard, he jammed the mop-head against the ceiling of the corridor, and then wedged the end of its handle into the floor. “Hey, presto! Instant fire-fighter’s pole – only this one we’ll have to slide up. That’s not just the ceiling of level nine above us; it’s the floor of level eight. We must try to break through.”

  “Allow me!” Iggy was already shinning up the pole with an astro-wrench snatched from his tool kit. “There’s an inspection hatch up here . . .” He quickly fiddled with several bolts in the ceiling until they fell away – quickly followed by a large metal panel that clattered to the floor.

  “You did it!” cried Gipsy, as the dung-ball slithered still closer.

  Iggy kissed his astro-wrench. “Now, if I can just loosen the floor panel above . . .”

  But suddenly, the kraggle-scruncher bounced into view. At the sight of the astrosaurs in front of it, all sixteen of its pink eyes narrowed with hatred.

  “Quickly, everyone!” cried Teggs. “Climb up there and help Iggy!”

  Gipsy and Alass were up the mop-handle first, banging on the stubborn panel. Arx squeezed up too and tried to prise it free with his horns. The guards rushed at the kraggle-scruncher but it punched one guard senseless and kicked the other into the wall.

  “It’s no good!” Gipsy shook her aching hoofs. “We can’t break through.”

  “But you must!” Teggs shouted, as the kraggle-scruncher hopped closer and the dung-monster moved in for the kill. “You MUST!”

  Chapter Seven

  RAPTOR REALITY

  In desperation, Teggs hurled the inspection hatch at the kraggle-scruncher. But the beast batted it away and opened its mouth. A fireball formed there and the creature got ready to roast the astrosaurs alive . . .

  Just as the giant dung-ball spat an enormous mound of manure at the one-footed fury – burying it completely!

  Teggs smiled grimly. “That thing doesn’t distinguish between dinosaurs and alien weirdoes – it wants to get everyone!”

  The kraggle-scruncher broke free and started bouncing off the walls, howling mad and scattering muck everywhere.

  Iggy finally flipped up the floor panel. “Come on, you lot! We’re through to level eight!”

  “Quick!” Teggs hissed, helping the dazed ankylosaur guards climb the mop handle. Then he shinned up to safety himself – as the kraggle-scruncher shook off the last of the manure and launched a fearsome fireball at the dung-ball in its path!

  A deafening POP! echoed from the corridor below.

  Arx peeped back through the hole and saw that the devilish dung-ball was gone, destroyed by the kraggle-scruncher’s fiery attack. But unlike the other dream things, it hadn’t disappeared completely.

  From up here, Arx could see tiny gleaming shards of red crystal, scattered all over the floor below. “That’s interesting,” he murmured, “very interesting . . .”

  The kraggle-scruncher grabbed hold of the mop with its one enormous hand and started to pull itself up after the astrosaurs. Arx rolled backwards as the creature sent a blast of fire bursting up through the hole – and in the fierce white light, the triceratops saw something sparkling on Teggs’s back.

  “Aha!” Arx hurried over to take a closer look. “Just as I thought.” He gazed round excitedly at the others. “I think I know the secret of the dream-demons. But to prove my theory, we must capture the kraggle-scruncher!”

  Gipsy stared at him. “Capture it? How?”

  The kraggle-scruncher roared. A huge pink palm slapped down on the deck as it started to pull itself through the hole. The astrosaurs backed quickly away.

  “I have an idea that might work,” Iggy murmured. “But we’ll need to go to the engine room!”

  “So what are we waiting for?” Teggs gave Iggy a crooked smile and sprinted away. “Let’s do it!”

  There was another bunch of savage, sabre-toothed bananas lurking outside the engine room. Teggs whacked one with his tail – but this time, it didn’t go pop. Instead, it jumped up at his tummy and sank its fruity fangs into his flesh with fearsome force. “Ow!” Teggs yelled. “These things are tougher than before!”

  “They certainly are!” Gipsy wrenched the savage fruit away, but it wriggled out of her grip and attacked her. Alass grabbed the banana in mid-air and hurled it away, while her guards swept aside the others with their bony, club-like tails.

  Iggy led everyone into the engine room and they closed the doors behind them. It was a large rectangular space that housed not only the Sauropod’s mighty motors but also the dung-burners – clever machines that turned raw dung into fuel.

  “I wasn’t expecting those bananas to be so hard to get rid of,” Arx admitted.

  “We’ve been chasing about the ship for three hours,” Iggy reminded him. “We’re probably just tired.”

  “It’s more than that.” Arx scratched his horns. “It’s almost as if the dream-demons are getting stronger as time goes by . . .”

  “All the more reason why we must catch that kraggle-scruncher, and fast,” said Teggs. “What’s your plan, Ig?”

  “It’s a bit dodgy,” Iggy admitted. “But if we can get the kraggle-scruncher to shoot a close-range fireball at the dung-burners, it’ll cause an explosion that should stop it in its tracks.”

  “And then we can capture it!” Teggs beamed.

  “Perhaps it’ll just go pop?” said Gipsy hopefully.

  “Actually,” said Arx, “I don’t think the kraggle-scruncher can ever go pop . . .”

  Before anyone could ask what he meant, a familiar cloud of crimson smoke appeared at the far end of the engine room, the shadowy outline of a raptor forming at its centre. Alass and the ankylosaurs gasped.

  “It’s all right,” Teggs told them. “It’s only Loki, back to bug us.”

  “And look,” said Gipsy, “he’s holding something in his claw . . .”

  Teggs bunched his fists. “It’s the alarm pterosaur!”

  Sure enough, Loki was holding poor Terri by the throat. “Don’t you dare damage this ship’s engines, astro-fools!” he gro
wled, bobbing about in the smoky air. “If you do – I’ll squish this dainty dino-bird.”

  The alarm pterosaur stretched out to Teggs feebly with her wings.

  “Put her down!” Teggs shouted. “What do you care about our engines, anyway?”

  “Because the Sauropod will soon be mine,” Loki snarled. “And I’ve got quite enough repairs to make to it already!”

  Through the door, the astrosaurs heard the approaching step of the tireless kraggle-scruncher. Thump. THUMP! THUMP! The beat of the monster’s footsteps quickened, like the pounding of a heart.

  Loki swung his tail gleefully and Terri choked on a wisp of scarlet smoke. “My little pet is coming for you.”

  Iggy looked at Teggs. “If we can’t stop it with the dung-burners, it’ll destroy us all.”

  Teggs nodded. “But if we do stop it, Loki will squish poor Terri!”

  “Precisely!” Loki’s one staring eye was bright with menace. “You have served your purpose, plant-eaters. I no longer need you. But I do need your ship, and your precious undreaming pterosaurs to fly it for me – that’s why I stole them all away . . .”

  The kraggle-scruncher started banging on the engine-room door.

  “Captain,” Gipsy cried, “what can we do?”

  “We must beg Loki for mercy,” said Teggs, padding over to the floating raptor, his head bowed. “Either that or . . . ATTACK!”

  “No!” Loki gasped, as Teggs sprung furiously towards him. Something fell from the raptor’s free hand. The smoke engulfed Loki, Teggs, and Terri, too . . .

  When it faded, all three had vanished!

  Chapter Eight

  OUT OF DREAMS

  “Captain!” cried Gipsy. “Arx, what happened? Where have they gone?”

  But before Arx could even try to answer, the kraggle-scruncher smashed through the engine-room doors with a horrible howl.

  Bravely, Iggy ran up to the monster and stamped on its foot. The kraggle-scruncher knocked him to the floor and opened its snarling, awful mouth to unleash a fireball . . .

  Then Alass and her guards ran up behind it and butted it as hard as they could. The kraggle-scruncher tripped over Iggy and its flame struck the dung-burners . . .

  “Oh, no!” wailed Gipsy.

  “Down, everyone!” Arx yelled.

  KER-KRUMMP! The dung-burner blew up with a smoky, smelly explosion. The kraggle-scruncher was thrown against the far wall and landed in a heap.

  “We didn’t mean to damage the engine!” said Alass in alarm. “Loki won’t really hurt Terri, will he?”

  “He will need her to help fly the ship,” Arx muttered, studying their fallen foe. “Besides, I’m sure Captain Teggs won’t let any harm come to Terri, wherever they’ve gone.”

  “I hope they’re all right,” said Gipsy sadly. “How’s the kraggle-scruncher?” “Arx was right, it didn’t go pop.” Iggy rubbed his bruised jaw. “Just how tough is that dream-thing?”

  “The kraggle-scruncher is a living thing – not a dream-demon at all!” Arx told them, examining the monster. “Yes, it’s got a pulse in its foot . . . and two hearts beating in its arm. We knocked it out, that’s all.” Suddenly, a sabre-toothed banana bounced into the room, and Arx grabbed it. “You see, dream-things like this one are quite different. They have no heartbeat or pulse at all.”

  “Because they are magic dream-monsters?” asked Alass.

  “No, because they are made of meteor crystals!” Arx declared. “Crystals with the power to take any shape and texture they choose.”

  Gipsy stared at him in amazement. “You said those meteors contained some kind of strange energy . . .”

  Iggy nodded. “And Loki said they were a raptor weapon.”

  “A very advanced one too,” Arx agreed. “You know how an astro-camera takes snapshots of space that we then print on special paper? Well, I think that the meteor on the flight deck took snapshots of our dreams, printed them onto special crystals – and then sent them to get us . . .” He squeezed the banana with all his strength, and finally it vanished with a pop. “See?”

  Gipsy peered closely at his hands and saw they were covered in tiny fragments of red crystal. “So, we’ve been fighting crystal reproductions of our dreams!” she breathed. “No wonder they shattered when we hit them hard enough.”

  “I only noticed when the kraggle-scruncher destroyed that giant dung-ball,” Arx admitted. “It was so big that the crystal fragments it left behind were easy to spot. Then I noticed tiny bits of crystal on the captain’s back where he squashed those dream-bananas.”

  “But how did Loki make those space-cars disappear just by pointing at them?” asked Iggy.

  “I wonder . . .” Arx bounded over to where Loki had appeared, and picked up a small metal device from the floor. “Aha! The general dropped this when Captain Teggs jumped him. It looks like a miniature light-cannon . . .” Another sabre-toothed banana bounced obligingly into the room, and Arx quickly squeezed a button on the gadget. There was a flash of light, and the banana burst into tiny tell-tale splinters. “There you go. Loki used this to get rid of the meteor’s projections.”

  One of the ankylosaur guards was scratching his head with his tail. “But why would Loki send a real kraggle-scruncher after us as well as the dream-demons?”

  “Perhaps the dream-demons weren’t quite ready to fight,” Iggy suggested. “We all woke up when the kraggle-scruncher’s fire set off the sprinklers by accident, right? Maybe we were supposed to stay sleeping for a few hours longer . . .”

  “The bananas have certainly got stronger as time’s gone by,” Gipsy agreed. “I bet you’re right, Ig – Loki tricked us with a real kraggle-scruncher so we wouldn’t guess how weak the dream-demons were back then!”

  “We messed up our best chance to fight back!” said Arx grimly. “I only wish we knew where Loki has gone now with the captain and Terri.”

  Gipsy sighed. “I only wish we knew what to do next.”

  “That one’s easy,” growled Alass. “However tough these dream-things are, we must reach that miserable meteor on the flight deck – and SMASH it!”

  Teggs woke with a groan somewhere dark and cold. After grabbing hold of Loki, the world had started to spin. He’d felt himself fading away, and then growing solid again somewhere else. How long had he been asleep – seconds? Hours?

  “Loki!” he shouted. “Where are you?” He choked on smoke seeping from Loki’s discarded anti-gravity boots, lying on the ground. “What have you done with my alarm pterosaur?”

  A dim light shone to the left of him through a crimson haze. Teggs staggered towards it in the hope of finding fresh air – and found himself in the mouth of a massive cave. Gulping down deep breaths, he saw another large red crystal, like the one stuck in the roof of the Sauropod, hooked up to a strange machine with dozens of smaller crystals scattered around it. Each of the red stones showed a different view of the Sauropod’s decks and corridors. In one of them, he saw a cleaner fending off a flying scorpion. In another, an engineer was running from a giant egg.

  “Loki’s been spying on us,” Teggs murmured angrily. “Watching as we’ve been fighting those dream-demons.” Then, with a thrill of delight, he noticed that one crystal showed Arx, Gipsy, Iggy and the others standing over the body of the kraggle-scruncher. “We’ve beaten your big-footed friend, Loki!” he shouted. “Now, where are you? And where am I, for that matter?”

  Outside the cave, an alien sun was shining in the hazy blue sky. Teggs crossed to the cave mouth – and there, across the barren plains before him, was the Sauropod! The huge crimson meteor that crowned its crumpled top was sparkling in the sunlight like an enormous exotic jewel.

  “So, I’m outside on Mallakar,” Teggs realized.

  “And here you shall perish, you sludge-brained stegosaurus!”

  At the sound of Loki’s slightly muffled voice, Teggs whirled round to face the shadows. “Come out, Loki,” he ordered. “I know you’ve been teleporting in and out of my ship from here. Just
come out and face me, dinosaur to dinosaur.”

  “Very well . . .” A mechanical crunching noise carried from the back of the cave – followed by the whirring of engines. “Here I am!”

  Teggs gasped as a strange metal sculpture came floating towards him. It looked like an armoured spacesuit built for a kraggle-scruncher, with various weapons attached to the oversized foot. Crimson anti-gravity vapour swirled from its metal sole. A large glass box was balanced on top of the arm where the fist should have been.

  And there inside the box, steering the suit with huge switches, was General Loki. “That’s right, Captain,” he snarled. “This is where your nightmares really begin!”

  Chapter Nine

  THE CHAOS AND THE CRYSTAL

  “So that’s how you escaped from space prison,” Teggs realized. “And why Arx found no trace of a spaceship on Mallakar. That kraggle-scruncher of yours sneaked under the DSS radar in a jet-propelled armoured spacesuit and carried you away!”

  “It was sent to release me by the Raptor Royal himself!” said Loki proudly, floating a little higher into the air. “He needed someone he could trust to test out our mighty meteors. And since I knew you leaf-nibbling fools would be chasing after me, I decided to test them on YOU! But it takes at least eight hours for the dream-demons to reach maximum strength, and you awoke after only five . . .”

  “So you kept us busy with your kraggle-scruncher until they were properly cooked.” Teggs scowled. “But never mind that. What have you done with Terri Alarmosaurus?”

  “I stuck that dreary dino-bird back in her cage.” Loki smiled down from his box. “You would do better to worry about your own safety . . .” As he spoke, he stamped down at Teggs with the great iron foot of his borrowed suit. Caught off-guard, the captain barely jumped clear in time. “Once your crew see that I’ve crushed you, they will soon surrender your ship!”

  Teggs scrambled to his feet. “Why do you need the Sauropod, anyway?”

  “To deliver the dream-meteors all around the Vegetarian Sector!” Loki grinned as his suit rose back up into the air. “They can move through space by themselves, of course – how else could we have steered them here from Raptos? – but they are somewhat slow.” He tried to stamp on Teggs again, narrowly missing the stegosaur’s tail. “And, in order to cause maximum damage in the shortest possible time, I need a super-fast spaceship that can deliver the meteors to any plant-eater planet or DSS space station without arousing suspicion.”