Astrosaurs 2 (7 page)

“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 lightning!”

“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 . . .

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.

“Just about!” someone said.

“Good,” said Teggs. “Everyone's OK. But remember, if
we
made it through the landing, chances are that King Albu and his egg-snatchers did too.” He hungrily uprooted enormous fern and swallowed it down “And there's nothing like a really big crash for working an appetite!”