Read Astrosaurs 3 Online

Authors: Steve Cole

Astrosaurs 3 (10 page)

“I know,” said Teggs. “But we mustn't give up. An astrosaur fights on to the last breath!” He paused. “Sorry, that wasn't a very clever thing to say, was it?”

They left the chilly chamber and took a side-tunnel. Soon they
came to another room. It was marked LARDER – DO NOT DISTURB. A huge aquarium stretched along one wall for hundreds of metres. Nothing moved in the eerie, dark water.

“This must be where their food lived,” said Gipsy.

Teggs was puzzled. “Strange to have an aquarium in a ship that's already full of water.”

“I suppose the fish would swim all over the ship otherwise, trying to escape being eaten,” Gipsy guessed. Then she noticed a big hole in the back of the tank. “Captain! The fish
did
escape! Look, they must have swum away into the sea!”

“Good for them,” smiled Teggs. “I'm glad they got out.” A thought struck him. “And if they did, maybe so can we! If we could find our way back out to the sea bed, a search party might spot us!”

“Brilliant!” cried Gipsy.

“All we have to do is break the glass . . .” He struck the side of the tank with his tail. The glass glowed a brilliant blue and a crack appeared in its centre.

But suddenly an alarm went off at ear-splitting volume. Steel bars slammed down to block the doorway. They were trapped inside the larder.

“What did I do?” cried Teggs.

The siren stopped as a helpful computer voice chimed in from a speaker in the ceiling: “You tried to open the fish tank without a password. You are an intruder and a fish-pincher.”

Teggs stared up at the speaker. “What would I do with a fish? I'm a vegetarian!”

“A likely story!” snarled the computer. The siren switched on again, only this time it was even louder.

“But there aren't even any fish in the tank!” yelled Teggs.

“Oh yes, there are,” said Gipsy. A few deep blue fish had swum inside through the big hole. They came up to the front of the tank, as if to see what was happening. A few others came to join them. Then more. And more. Soon there
were hundreds of fish staring at Gipsy through the glass.

They didn't seem very happy.

“Turn that siren off!” yelled Teggs. He tried to bang his tail against the speaker – but it was just out of reach.

“No way!” snapped the computer. “I'm going to turn it
up
!” Sure enough, the siren grew louder still.

“My ears are going to burst!” groaned Teggs. He bashed the steel bars with his tail. They sparked, but held firm. “We can't get out!”

“Never mind
us
getting
out,”
said Gipsy fearfully. “Let's just hope those fish can't get in!”

“Fish? Why are you bothered about a few fish . . .?”

But Teggs trailed off when he looked at the aquarium.

There were thousands of the tiny creatures now. They had banded together into one enormous group – a huge huddle of angry blue fish, moving and acting as one.

Floating all together, they made Mira seem like a minnow.

“That's the same shape I saw back at the floating factory,” Teggs cried over the ear-splitting noise. “It wasn't a giant monster who sank the subs and chewed up the factories after all. It was these
little fish – working together to
act
like a giant monster!”

Suddenly the dark, seething shape swept forwards and smashed into the glass like a living battering ram.

“And now they want to get in here!” cried Gipsy.

“But why?” wondered Teggs. “What have we done?”

The thousands of fish opened their little mouths and gnashed at the glass. The crack in the side of the tank grew wider.

“Their teeth are as sharp as sharks'!” gasped Gipsy. “I think they're going to eat
us!”

Chapter Nine
FIN-
ISHED?

The great mass of the little blue fish attacked the side of the tank again. The crack spread into a pattern of crazy zigzags, stretching from floor to ceiling.

“Look out, Gipsy!” shouted Teggs. “They're coming through!”

The fish hurled themselves at the glass, and the tank burst open. Teggs and Gipsy watched helplessly as the tiny creatures swarmed inside the larder . . .

. . . and ignored them completely.

Instead, the fish headed for the speaker in the ceiling, attacking it and tearing it open with their vicious teeth. The sound of the siren faded.

“Under attack!” gasped the computer voice. “The whisperfish have escaped the larder! Assistance needed—”

Then with a flash of sparks and an electronic cough, the voice and the siren shut off all together.

Teggs' and Gipsy's ears rang in the sudden silence.

And, the next second, the “monster” vanished as all the fish swam swiftly away in different directions. A few of them hung about in the larder, their little mouths opening and closing. But the rest were already swimming back out to sea as if nothing had ever happened.

“Of course!” yelled Teggs at the top of his voice. But some of the fish gave him a nasty look, so he quickly shut up. “They weren't after us. They were after whatever was making the noise!”

“I don't get it,” frowned Gipsy.

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