Astrosaurs 20

by Steve Cole

  “The end,” he murmured. “And a new beginning.”

  Then twelve fierce explosions bloomed in nearby space as Loki’s bombs went off – harmlessly. The hatchlings oohed and ahhed at the storm of fire and light, staring in wonder.

  “Whoa!” Zac shielded his eyes. “What was that?”

  “That,” said Teggs, “was the end of poor old loopy Loki’s final evil scheme to wipe you out. Thanks to my amazing crew, it failed.”

  Zac blinked, bewildered. Then he grinned and shook Teggs by the hand. “You four have done so much to help us. We shall sing your praises every day, all across space, so you will never be forgotten.”

  “Er, actually –” Teggs smiled ruefully – “it’s probably a good idea if you keep very, very quiet about us. I can’t explain, but it’s for the best.”

  “Well,” said Gazell, “there’s one thing I can do to remember you.” She scooped her youngest hatchling from her back and held him up to Teggs. “I’ve finally decided what to call this little tyke! I shall name him after you.”

  “Wow! Cool!” Teggs blushed. “So he’ll be Teggs, er . . . I’m sorry, Gazell, I don’t know your second name . . .”

  “I’d like it to be ‘Stegosaur’,” Zac blurted. “Gazell – will you marry me?”

  Gazell stared at him in shock. Then she hugged him tight and her hatchling jumped on him too. “Yes! Yes, I will!”

  Teggs gulped. So there he is, he thought. Teggs Stegosaur the first!

  Could it be possible? Was he looking at his own distant ancestor – his great-great-great-times-a-million-billion-great-grandfather?

  A little dizzily, Teggs turned to the Sauropod shuttle flying alongside, and saw Iggy, Arx and Gipsy waving through the windows. He saluted them, and then waved back happily.

  It’s hard to know for sure, Teggs decided. But right now, I think the future for us all is looking very bright indeed!

  A few minutes later, with super-precise steering, Iggy brought Shuttle Alpha right alongside the Soar-a-saurus so that Teggs could simply hop from the cargo hold onto the little ship’s roof! He landed on the hatch cover, grabbed hold of the remains of the rope, and took a final look back at the distant, raging Earth.

  Then the ejector platform sucked him back inside – and into the waiting arms of his happy friends.

  “Captain!” Arx cried. “Thank space you’re back safely.”

  Teggs grinned. “Thank space you rejigged the magnets to work only on mega-metal.”

  Arx looked pleased. “Oh, it was nothing really.”

  “I don’t think Loki would thank you,” Iggy declared. “So it’s just as well there’s nothing really left of him – or his death-flyer, that time machine or any other technology, now that the meteor’s trashed it all.”

  “But will there be anything left of our future?” said Gipsy nervously. “Has our being here in the past helped history stay on track – or wrecked it?”

  “If Arx can only fix the time machine, we’ll find out,” said Teggs, already stripping off his quilted space gear. “By travelling forward sixty-five million, one hundred thousand and fifty-six years to the present – where this all began!”

  Teggs thought he might go crazy, cooped up in the little shuttle for hours and hours, wondering if they would be trapped in the past for ever. But although it took Arx the better part of a day, he was able to repair the golden pyramid in the end. The astrosaurs put on their exo-suits and prepared for the first leg of their long journey back home.

  Arx nudged the time machine’s on-button with his nose-horn. “Here goes everything,” he murmured as the metal pyramid hummed into life.

  At once, Teggs felt the shuttle begin to shudder and shake. The familiar flash of red light sparked through his head. He was spinning, spiralling, lost . . .

  Then, with a gigantic lurch, the shuttle stopped shaking and all was still. Teggs let out a sigh of relief and opened his eyes.

  “I think we’re back in our own time, Captain,” Arx said breathlessly, studying the time machine’s readout.

  Iggy checked the shuttle controls. “We’re back where we started, between Earth and Mars.”

  “It all seems quiet,” said Gipsy, staring out into space. “But did we win, or . . . ?”

  She left the question hanging.

  “Sauropod,” said Teggs, speaking urgently into the communicator. “This is your captain in Shuttle Alpha. Can you hear me?”

  Only whispers of static could be heard through the speakers.

  Teggs tried again. “Come in, Sauropod, please?” He swallowed hard. “Anyone?”

  Then a loud chirp came through loud and clear.

  Gipsy cheered. “It’s Sprite!”

  A babble of chirps crackled from the communicator, and Gipsy quickly translated for Iggy’s benefit: “Captain, I don’t know what happened. One minute those crazy carnivore ships were shooting us with everything they had, the next they—”

  “Vanished?” Teggs interrupted.

  Sprite made squawks and clicking noises. “Yes!” Gipsy continued. “The bad carnivores just faded away. It was as if . . . they’d never existed.”

  “That’s because they never did exist.” Arx was grinning as he stared through his astro-scope. “Look at the Earth! Just look at it!”

  Teggs, Iggy and Gipsy quickly crowded round to see. There were no giant snarling reptiles all over the place. The planet was plastered with billions of human beings.

  Gipsy whooped. “The Earth’s back to normal!”

  “If you can call those funny-looking humans normal!” said Iggy.

  “Right now, I call them the most welcome sight in the universe,” said Teggs. “All this proves that we haven’t harmed history after all – we’ve simply given it a helping hand. So let’s catch up with the Sauropod and travel back through the space tunnel. I’m glad we visited Earth, but now I’m ready to stay in the real home of the dinosaurs.”

  “The Jurassic Quadrant,” said Gipsy dreamily. “I can’t wait!”

  Chapter Fourteen

  PRESENT IN THE PRESENT!

  Although shaken and battered – much like her crew – the Sauropod held together stoutly on the bone-jarring, mind-squashing return voyage through the space tunnel. And when the astrosaurs arrived at DSS HQ, they were informed that Admiral Rosso was waiting for them in the cavernously grand Extra-Special Suite for Very Important Dinosaurs.

  As Teggs led his tired, terrific team through the suite’s marble doors, he saw that Rosso wasn’t alone. A whole crowd of dinos were gathered there with party poppers.

  “SURPRISE!” came the huge shout from all assembled, as the poppers went off and streamers flew. The dimorphodon launched joyfully into the air, catching the streamers and twirling them about like banners.

  “You and your crew have done the plant-eater race proud this day, Teggs,” Rosso declared. “And so I thought you deserved a small reward – the biggest, poshest party in dinosaur history!”

  Iggy grinned. “We know a lot about history, sir!”

  “So, party on, dudes!” A stocky green diplodocus stepped out from behind the admiral, with a yellow pterosaur perched on his back.

  “Dutch! Blink!” Teggs beamed as his old team-mates from Astrosaurs Academy rushed forward to greet him. “It’s so good to see you!”

  “And you!” Blink squawked happily.

  “And wherever the Daring Dinos go, can Damona’s Darlings be far away?” A pretty red diceratops stepped forward to join them. “Hi, everyone!”

  “Damona!” Teggs cried. “My old Academy rival, how are you?”

  “Brilliant, of course!” Damona fluttered her eyelids. “As are my old team-mates, Splatt and Netta . . .”

  “Wow,” said Teggs as Netta the pink ankylosaur gave him a hug and Splatt the dryosaurus shook his hand. “The old gang really is all here.”

  “Along with some newer faces too,” said Governor Bunwinkle, their friend from the space prison. “Well done, astrosaurs.”

  “Ye
s, and thank you,” said Zindi Bent beside him, free of chains now. “Thank you for stopping Loki using my machine to destroy history.”

  Rosso smiled down at her. “Zindi is being released at once with a full pardon,” he revealed. “She will join our top inventors’ team at Super-Secure-Space-Station One, using her amazing mind to build many more marvellous machines that will help sea-reptiles and plant-eaters alike.”

  “I’m pleased to hear it,” said Teggs.

  Zindi grinned. “Well, you’ve certainly proved to me that my time machine is way too dangerous to stay in existence.”

  “Indeed it is,” Rosso agreed. “Tomorrow, we’ll take it to pieces. But right now, all of you – enjoy the party! I’ve laid on the biggest buffet in the galaxy . . .”

  “Laid on it? I hope you didn’t squash it, dude,” joked Dutch.

  “Eeep,” agreed Sprite as two dozen dimorphodon fell about with laughter.

  “It’s the way he tells them,” said Netta dryly.

  But Teggs hardly heard them. His eyes were out on stalks at the sight of the super-big table at the back of the room, weighed down with about a thousand plates of succulent-looking plants – including one that looked very familiar. “That’s never a bowl of garga-weeds is it?”

  “Newly discovered by the Supply Fleet on a distant planet,” said Splatt proudly.

  “That’s a blast from the past I’m happy to see!” Hunger and happiness filling his whole body, Teggs ran over and started tucking in greedily. “Delicious!”

  Arx, Iggy and Gipsy ran over to join him in filling their plates.

  “It’s hard to believe that Zac and Gazell lived so many millions of years ago,” said Gipsy. “I wish we could visit them a few years later to see how they got on . . .”

  “Too dangerous,” Arx declared.

  “I’m sure they took good care of each other,” said Iggy. “And of their family.”

  Including the very first little Teggs Stegosaur, thought Teggs happily.

  He looked around the room again and saw other old friends in the crowd. There was Shazz, the High Flapper from Squawk Major, talking to Sprite and the dimorphodon . . . Prime Rhino Serras from the sunny world of Hawn was chatting to Jodril, the big-eyed apatosaurus . . . Queen Soapi the bactrosaur was fanning herself weakly while Leefer, the astrosaurs’ smelly farmer friend from Noxia-4, told her tales about his life . . . Spink, a friendly kentrosaurus miner, was chatting with Hank and Crank, star athletes of the Great Dinosaur Games . . .

  Teggs wandered around the room, talking and laughing with them all for hours. He was glad to see his crew having fun too. Arx was delighted when his niece Abbiz burst in and came rushing up to hug him, just as Iggy was thrilled to find his brother Wimvis on the scene with two frothing flagons of top-quality fern-juice.

  Gipsy broke off from a chinwag with Netta and Damona and tapped Teggs on the shoulder. “You looked miles away, Captain. A penny for your thoughts?”

  “I was just thinking – who needs a time machine?” said Teggs. “With good friends and memories, we can relive past escapades whenever we like – and look forward to new adventures still to come.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” said Iggy, raising his cup.

  “So will I!” chorused Arx and Gipsy.

  “And I’ll drink to us,” said Teggs, grinning at his fantastic friends. “Here’s to the astrosaurs – and to a frantic, fun-filled future for us all!”

  INTERVAL

  The party went on all night, and Teggs was the last to leave. He stumbled sleepily into his luxury bedroom and flopped onto a huge bed of fresh leaves and straw. He didn’t wake up again until late in the afternoon!

  “I can’t believe I missed breakfast and lunch,” he murmured, his tum rumbling. “I’d better have three dinners to make up for it!”

  He walked to the DSS canteen and saw Gipsy sitting with a cup of fern coffee. “Hello, Captain!” she waved.

  “Hi, Gipsy.” Teggs helped himself to a steaming pot of stalk stew and sat beside her. “Where are Arx and Iggy?”

  “Playing dino-ball with your old friends from Astrosaurs Academy,” Gipsy informed him. “I said I’d bring you along when you got up.” She smiled. “Blink and Dutch are great fun, aren’t they?”

  “They certainly are,” Teggs agreed. “So are Damona and her darlings.”

  Gipsy frowned. “Her what?”

  “Netta and Splatt,” Teggs explained. “Their team was Damona’s Darlings, and Dutch, Blink and I were the Daring Dinos.”

  “You still are, as far as I can see!” said Gipsy. “I bet you had tons of fun together. How did you meet them all?”

  “Well . . .” Teggs drained the last of his stew, smacked his lips, and looked into the distance, remembering. “It all started on my very first day at Astrosaurs Academy . . .”

  For Tobey and Amy

  The cadets

  THE DARING DINOS

  DAMONA’S DARLINGS

  Talking Dinosaur!

  How to say the prehistoric names in

  DESTINATION: DANGER!

  STEGOSAURUS – STEG-oh-SORE-us

  GRYPOSAURUS – GRIPE-oh-SORE-us

  DIPLODOCUS – di-PLOH-de-kus

  IGUANODON – ig-WA-noh-don

  DICERATOPS – dye-SERRA-tops

  TRICERATOPS – try-SERRA-tops

  PTEROSAUR – teh-roh-SORE

  SEISMOSAURUS – SIZE-moh-SORE-us

  ANKYLOSAUR – an-KILE-oh-SORE

  DRYOSAURUS – DRY-oh-SORE-us

  LAMBEOSAUR – LAMB-ee-oh-SORE

  SAUROPELTA – SORE-oh-PEL-ta

  Chapter One

  A DINOSAUR’S DREAM

  Teggs Stegosaur sat on the back seat of the space-bus, eating his thirty-seventh packed lunch of the day.

  And it wasn’t even noon yet!

  Teggs was a young, orange-brown stegosaurus, who was handsome, bright and very often hungry. He got even hungrier when he was excited . . .

  And right now, he was more excited than he had ever been in his life!

  “Are we nearly there yet?” Teggs called to the bus driver.

  “That’s the five hundredth time you’ve asked,” said the bus driver, a grumpy gryposaurus. “And the answer’s still no. We only left an hour ago!”

  Teggs shrugged and tucked into another sack of apples. As he munched, he stared out of the window at distant stars and comets twinkling in the darkness. He had always dreamed of flying through space, helping other dinosaurs and having adventures. And now, here he was on an empty, rickety old bus hoping to make his dreams come true . . .

  It was millions of years since dinosaurs had left behind the planet Earth to start a new life among the stars. Now they lived in a part of space called the Jurassic Quadrant. The plant-eaters lived on one side and the meat-eaters lived on the other.

  But sometimes fights broke out, or spooky space monsters attacked, or innocent leaf-munchers needed help. When that happened, special, daring, space-travelling dinosaurs zoomed to the rescue. They belonged to the Dinosaur Space Service and called themselves astrosaurs.

  More than anything, Teggs wanted to become an astrosaur too. But first I’ve got to prove I have what it takes, he thought – by training at the Astrosaurs Academy!

  “Are we nearly there yet?” Teggs asked yet again.

  “No!” the driver yelled back, as a large grey planet loomed up in the bus window. “Our next stop is the planet Diplox.”

  “Diplox,” said Teggs, thinking hard. Astrosaurs had to know the names of every planet in the Jurassic Quadrant, as well as the dinosaurs that lived there. “Isn’t that where diplodocus come from?”

  “Correct,” said the driver. He stopped the bus at the orbiting bus stop and opened the doors. “And here comes one now.”

  A dark green dinosaur wriggled through the bus doors with a huge rucksack on his back.

  He was short for a diplodocus, but very sturdy. He looked around the bus, his long neck swishing this way and that.

  Then h
e saw Teggs and smiled. “Hey, dude!”

  “Hi! I’m Teggs,” said Teggs.

  “Dutch Delaney,” replied the small diplodocus. “Good to meet you, Teggs.” He pulled a bat and ball from his rucksack with his mouth. “Do you like sports?”

  Teggs grinned. “Let’s play!”

  Dutch knocked the ball over to Teggs, who whacked it with his spiky tail. But he hit it too hard and it started bouncing all over the bus! “Cool!” cried Dutch, as he dodged the ball with amazing skill.

  Finally, the ball hit the driver on the head. “Ow!” he shouted. “No ball games allowed on this bus!”

  “Sorry!” Teggs and Dutch called together – but they couldn’t help laughing.

  “That was a great shot, Teggs,” said Dutch admiringly.

  Teggs smiled. “That was nice dodging, Dutch!”

  “Thanks,” said Dutch. “Been on the bus long?”

  “Bean? Where’s a bean?” Teggs looked around ravenously, licking his lips.

  “No, dude,” said Dutch quickly. “I meant, have you been riding this bus a long time?”

  “Oh! Only an hour or two,” Teggs told him. “I’m on my way to the planet Astro Prime to join—”

  “The Astrosaurs Academy!” Dutch beamed. “Me too! Wow, this is awesome.” He pulled his ‘welcome’ letter from his rucksack. “You know, I’m down to share a room with a stegosaurus. I hope he’s as cool as you . . .”

  “That’s funny,” said Teggs, looking at his own letter. “I think I’m sharing with a diplodocus . . .”

  They both re-read what the letters said – and gasped.

  “I’m sharing with you!” Teggs cried.

  “And me with you!” Dutch happily shook hands with Teggs. “It says we have to share with a flying reptile too.”

  “Maybe he’ll get on at the next stop!” said Teggs, opening up his thirty-eighth packed lunch of apples and ferns. “Would you like something to eat while we’re waiting, Dutch?”

  “Thanks, dude, but my mum already packed me a snack.” Dutch pulled out an enormous, tasty-looking tree from his rucksack. “Want a bite?”

  Teggs grinned. “Dutch, I think you might be the perfect roommate. Astrosaurs Academy, here we come!”