Psychotic blathering of the mind. 
I tend to write stuff off the top of my head, pieces of possible 
stories that will never be written, random events that surface at 
the search for something to put down in words. 
They are unplanned and unresolved.  So with that said, here's a 
bit about Scott, the Exploration Team leader, and  his 
background and experience with the  Lochiovonychus (lockjaws). 
Enjoy. 

All characters and creatures presented are © and intellectual 
property of Allison Theus.


Scott stepped up to the edge of the large, graying rock and surveyed his surroundings in 
lazy content.  The sun was on its path to sleep, the small white sun speck that kept the 
giant star company following close behind.  The forest thinned and ended behind him, the 
plains stretching out before him in a glorious sea of vegetation that flowed out to the 
horizon, stopping only for the jagged mountains that rose brooding and ominous in the 
distance.  A warm breeze slid gently through the air, ruffling his dark hair, and he closed 
his eyes.  It was strange; here seemed more like home than anywhere else.  He opened his 
eyes suddenly and took in the unclouded sunset, his once green irises turning gold as the 
last rays of the day struck them.  A cooler wind tugged at his old T-shirt and khaki shorts, 
bringing with it the torpid haze of dusk.  It would be a calm night he knew, as he could 
not sense any storms brewing nearby.  He smiled, remembering his first appearance on 
this planet.
	It was midday when they first landed.  Scott was nineteen and could not contain 
his excitement Š it had been so long since the previous Exploration Team had been here, 
and they had apparently discovered nothing.  He remembered the stories his father used 
to tell him Š that there was nothing but wilderness on the planet of the most powerful 
race in the universe.  Wilderness, and the savage, beautiful beasts that inhabited it.  For 
all their searching, they had failed time and again to find a Ruler, a piece of the Dark 
that presided over the Empire and its billions of nations.  The company they worked for 
had not been happy at their lack of valuable information, and had terminated their 
contracts suddenly one day while the Team had been in the middle of another expedition.  
They were left stranded and without protection on a merciless world where their 
presence was less than desired.  Of the twenty people planet-bound, only three survived.  
The planet and its beasts devoured the rest.  ScottÕs father was one of the survivors Š at 
least until several years afterwards, when he was abducted by an underground group of 
black market traders and space pirates, all of whom were interested in the information he 
held.  He died at their hands, and his secrets died with him.  
	Now he, Scott Wholbrin, was a part of this wonderful new thing, the new Team, a 
group of carefully selected individuals who were sent out to explore the home world of 
the Lords of the Empire, the Lochiovonychus (or lockjaws, as they were so nicknamed).  
No others were permitted on the surface of this mysterious planet, and this preference 
was enforced as the exact location of the planet and its solar system remained 
undiscovered.  It is said that the original founders of the company Explore Inc. managed 
to strike a deal with the elusive lockjaws, arguing that every other race had made 
information about themselves available and that it would be only fair for them to submit 
themselves to be studied.  After months of persistence, the two parties finally agreed on 
terms.  The lockjaws would allow a small group of people access to their home world, 
and so long as the company was responsible for the Team the members of the group were 
protected and left to freely roam the planet.  Yet what was gained from the expeditions 
could only be described as random, useless information that had nothing to do with the 
lockjaws themselves.  In fact, only one of the obsidian creatures had ever been spotted 
throughout the first teamÕs existence, and that was from an incredible distance.
	Scott pondered all this, heart pounding, as the small shuttle quivered and then 
settled as its landing gear came in contact with the planetÕs surface.  In an instant the 
side hatch was thrown wide and the bright light of day shone through, blinding.  Scott 
stepped out onto the grassy terrain and gazed about in wonder.  They were on the section 
of the plains that bordered a lush, magnificent forest of immense trees.  The wind was 
blowing steadily, and clouds billowed out into the azure blue sky.  White-capped 
mountains loomed far on the horizon, distant giants that strove to meet the clouds moving 
above them.  Not a single city or town or sign of habitation was visible, and the sky was 
devoid of any kind of ship or technology.  In fact, there were no signs that intelligent life 
existed there at all.  And yet somehow Scott knew that they were there, knew that this was 
what they preferred.  He had spent his entire life collecting what little information was 
available on them and putting together pieces of the puzzle.  They were an obsession of 
his, and now he was hereÉ
	It would be several years before anything happened.  Several years before he rose 
to become the appointed leader of a small faction of the Team that would partially break 
away from the supporting company.  Several years of frustration and failure as the new 
Team was no more successful than the previous one.  And then one day, fed up with the 
rest of the group and the constant failure, Scott had thrown protocol out the window and 
left the protected confines of the temporary camp, wandering off into the wilderness by 
himself.  He was gone for several days, and his team members took him for dead.  No 
non-terrestrial being had ever been able to survive on such a hostile planet alone.  For 
two days after he left the camp was pinned down by a storm that paved a path of 
destruction where it touched down.  Sometimes it rained hard, and sometimes not at all.  
Yet the lightening was incessant, the thunder continuous as the bolts struck again and 
again, tearing up the ground in a hair-raising display of extreme power.  It was like a 
living beast, as all storms were, raging and tearing into the planet with unbelievable 
ferocity.  Three days later, the storm having tapered off and a disgruntled Team having 
gathered itself back together in preparation for leaving, Scott appeared out of nowhere.  
He was unharmed, but there was something else to him that everyone noticed.  Something 
different, as he no longer seemed himself.  He never talked about his disappearance to 
anyone and kept silent more often than not, seemingly content just to watch what went on 
around him.  After the Team had returned to base back in the known universe, he 
developed friendships with several of the other team members who would soon become 
his closest companions; Terik, the 10Õtall, easy-going Invader; Hawthorn, a high-ranking 
Searcher military agent; Ender, the gentle Tealo healer; and Jerry, a punk kid off the 
streets of the Delta-human main world.  They would be known as The Five in the future.  
	In following expeditions Scott began disappearing more often, leaving his team 
members worried and angry.  He was even forbidden to leave the designated area at one 
point, but he paid no heed to their rules.  He began gathering information on his own and 
he kept the knowledge to himself, as he had stopped trusting the supporting company.  
His four friends saw what was happening, and turned to support him.  Around this time 
the lockjaws began to appear.  Almost unnoticed theyÕd trot by the camp, sometimes 
sitting on their haunches to watch the visitors, and taking off again when people noticed 
them and tried to get closer.  And always they traveled alone.  No one in the camp ever 
saw any of them traveling together.  At times one would slink into the camp itself, 
unnoticed by the beings around it, to peer at Scott while he worked or to touch his hand 
with a curious nose.  It didnÕt take the Team long to realize who held the cards, and they 
put him in charge of all the proceedings.  Needless to say, things changed.      
	The technology that was brought down to the surface was limited to that which 
was necessary.  Most of the equipment he decided should be left on board the small ship 
in orbit, as well as many of the people that were sent.  From then on he began taking 
smaller and smaller groups down, finally settling on fifteen people as compared to the 40 
that had been sent before.  He also insisted that they do things the old fashioned way, and 
actually camp out with tents and sleeping bags.  It was a mystery to most of the people as 
to why he would insist this, as they didnÕt quite understand that his goal was to try to 
become more connected with the world and that you couldnÕt achieve that living in a 
plastic box.  But as he was the one pulling in results, they did not question him.  While 
those on the surface were supposed to operate things around the camp and explore the 
immediate area, Scott was not among them.  He was often seen sitting on a rock or high 
place looking off into the distance, taking everything in and watching.  More often than 
not they would find him sitting several yards away from a lockjaw, seemingly involved in 
a staring contest that would end as the intruder appeared and the lockjaw faded back 
into the shadows. 
 Over time his friends noticed his continual changing.  He disappeared more often 
and without letting anyone know, usually returning several days later.  When he left he 
took only himself, leaving all technology and civilization behind him.  He developed an 
endless patience, and an understanding for the environment around him that was revered 
by everyone.  He became knowledgeable in the ways of the wild, straying far beyond the 
protected areas that the Team temporarily occupied to explore.  It wasnÕt long before he 
could sense the weather patterns and could feel a storm brewing many miles away.  In 
addition, he suddenly was able to track the lockjaws down in their natural habitat Š an 
impossible feat to perform as they moved like shadows and left almost no trace of their 
passing for anyone to follow.  And he seemed to be able to talk to them at some primitive 
level, as well as understand their body language and sense the auras that their emotions 
projected.  He even managed to coax one back into the camp, playing upon its innate 
curiosity, and got it to sit patiently while his friends came up to stare and hesitantly touch 
the obsidian hide.  It was an odd relationship to say the least, as the lockjaws never spoke 
to the visitors and behaved more like sentient animals than civilized beings.  Yet even that 
was to change eventually, as he found himself in the company of an easy-going lockjaw 
who had introduced himself as Riker.  First contact had been made, and Scott had found 
a source that could (but many times wouldnÕt) answer all his questions.  It wasnÕt long 
before Scott began to meet other lockjaws, and know them as people instead of as 
animals to be studied.  They were distantly curious, and he watched them and learned 
from every interaction.  He became attuned to their emotions, gestures, expressions Š his 
sharp eyes did not miss even the slightest shift in posture or attitude.  He knew what they 
liked, what they would permit and tolerate and what they would not.  He learned the 
difference in greetings, the behaviors and traditions.  The more he learned about them 
the closer he grew to them, so much so that he began to leave humanity behind.  His 
teammates could see it in him; the way he moved, the way he looked out at them, his 
interactions and mysterious abilities all began to separate him from his own race.  
Several months passed, and he was able to get help from Riker and permission 
from the Emperor to build his own secret research base on the nearest moon that the 
company did not know about.  In fact, only the 15 people that he had begun taking with 
him to the surface knew, and they were a tightly bonded group that became his crew 
when he began to separate from the company.  For all but the Five the secret lab became 
both home and hideaway.  It was there all the great discoveries and secrets were kept, 
though the most important ones were neither written nor filed.  Scott alone held those to 
himself, locked within his memory.  Yet much of what he had built had come from 
company funds, and he continued to draw on their unknowing support for the needs of the 
real team.  In order to keep the contract with the company, they maintained a good show 
by providing more random (if a little more useful) information and relevant, harmless 
data that was very much true.  And all the while his relations with the alien race 
continued to grow.  
	And now he was here.  Here, standing upon a boulder watching as the waving 
plains bid the day goodbye and night settled it, alien constellations appearing above him, 
the stars brightening the world with their ethereal light.  He stood for a while, drinking it 
all in, before he climbed down and started off towards the mountains.  He walked silently 
where the short grass grew, where he could see where he was going.  The night didnÕt 
restrict his vision so much as it had in the past, but then he hadnÕt learned how to see.  
The more he walked, the more he felt he belonged.  He was neither prey nor predator, 
neither man nor beast Š no, he was something more.  He felt the urge to run and obeyed, 
delighting in the freedom he felt.  He ran until he could run no more, his human body 
giving up long before his spirit desired.  He collapsed and laid on the ground, looking up 
at the stars and trying to catch his breath.  The shadows moved around him, and a 
familiar dark face materialized over him, grinning.  The glint of starlight off ivory fangs 
seemed dulled compared to the brightness of the fires burning within those golden eyes.  
Riker gazed down at his friend, somewhat amused, then sat on his haunches beside him 
and gazed up at the stars; only to twist his head a moment later to watch as Scott sat up, 
stood up, and then started to run again.  Riker laughed aloud and took off, surpassing the 
human within seconds as his four limbs brushed the ground effortlessly and he literally 
flew through air.  Running was in his heritage, and he was born for it.  
Scott watched the lockjaw vanish into the darkness again, wishing somewhat 
wistfully that he had been born a quadruped.  It wasnÕt too long before he tired again, and 
was about to sit down and rest when Riker reappeared, loping in silent circles around him 
with a gracefulness no feline could ever hope to match.  Scott did not bother to try and 
follow the shadowy creature with his eyes Š it always danced just out of reach, flitting by 
in his peripheral vision to fade back into darkness when he tried to look at it.  Instead he 
waited patiently, knowing that Riker was not a very playful individual and would appear 
eventually.  The flickering shadow disappeared, and Scott turned as something large leapt 
out of the tall grasses.  Razor talons grabbed him under the arms but did not puncture 
skin, and he was hoisted up into the air as easily as if he were a leaf.  The ground fell 
away from him and the sky opened up as Riker flew higher.  The lockjaw needed neither 
wings nor technology to fly, but only the power of his will.  As they shot up towards the 
stars they were joined by a few other lockjaws, obsidian bodies slicing through the air 
faster than the eye could follow.  They chased each other across the sky, dodging and 
zigzagging, shadows racing through the night.  And then they paused, hovered, and 
turned towards Riker who had remained static throughout the games.  He grinned, and 
they grinned back.  Then he dropped the human.
For a split second Scott felt weightless as Riker let go.  Then he felt gravity grab 
him, and he was falling.  He laughed, the wind ripping the sounds from his throat, and 
saw the aliens dive.  Like a bullet he sped towards the ground, soon exceeding his own 
terminal velocity as he was passed from one diving alien to the next.  The ground soon 
threatened to claim them, and so fast did they approach that the landscape seemed to leap 
from its place to try and clutch their lives in its earthy embrace.  But Riker had hold of 
him once again, claws scoring ScottÕs sides as gravity dragged at the human, the force 
caused by the sudden change in direction threatening to shatter his helpless, fragile body.  
They sped above the long grass, passing so close to it that they almost brushed the thin, 
darkened tips.  Having previously kept RikerÕs pace the other lockjaws now blazed by 
him in a game that reminded Scott of dolphins playing leapfrog, and soon were lost to 
sight.  Riker veered off to the right, slowing and allowing Scott to touchdown upon the 
rocky outcropping where he had watched the sun set earlier.  Then with a grin he was off, 
no more than a blur of darkness that disappeared in the blink of an eye across the 
darkened landscape.    
Scott stood for a while atop the rocks.  For a few brief moments heÕd been one of 
them.  He spread his arms wide, adrenaline still rushing through his body, and 
remembered the feeling of falling and flying together before hopping off the rocks and 
heading back towards camp.