Ask The Ranger and the Jedi

[Jon Callo]

The sun was finally rising over the Belching Frog Ranch on Tokadana. It wasn't a Crimson Dawn, nor a Black Sun or any other sun that Jon's father -Preef Callo- was associated with. One of the bantha Jon was looking at started to wake up and immediately began to chew. Probably yesterday's grass and for the sixth or seventh time before her body made the blue-ish milk from it. Jon caught himself smiling, which he realized he hadn't done for a while. Something had been pressing on him. Like an unwanted cloak it had fallen on his shoulders and he couldn't quite get rid of it.

He knew that as he got on his speeder bike, his peacemaker in the holster that was slung across it, that the cloak would not fall as he sped off towards the Tokadana capital of Andui. He would pass Gett'se Viszla's farm without stopping for a cup of caf or a good story. There was no longer a reason to detour to prevent getting tracked, not since his father had left the planet, so what used to take eight days was now a trip that took only three. Jon had a bottle of water and a can of foodstuffs attached to one side of his speeder and a sleeping bag on the other. His nights would be short when the light of the Tokadana moon was faintest, just so he could hurry back to the ranger office.

He was the only ranger in the Tashtor Sector. The Free World's Alliance had greatly diminished in the past years and funding for wandering rangers of sectors that couldn't afford the contributions had evaporated. So, when he finally arrived at the capital and parked his speeder bike at his office, no one was there waiting for him. He also knew that he wouldn't be busy. Something about being known as the son of the legendary quick-draw Preef Callo made sure very few outlaws decided to rob Tokadana's farmsteads or indeed retire to the sparsely populated planet. They had two possible scenario's: Either the son was as fast as the father, or his father would come down to avenge the son. Many chose not to find out...

This office, and his son being a ranger of the Tashtor Sector, was what Preef would've told the Jedi Councillor Hera Albion.

Jon opened the door to his office, which was mainly just a desk two feet from the door and a small brig on the opposite side of it, and then turned around and headed for the nearby cantina to get his breakfast.

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera sat quietly inside the local cantina, it was the closest cantina in the same city as the local ranger station, it was also one of the only decent ones. Preef Callo had told her where his son worked, in the Tashtor sector. At first, Hera thought that might be difficult to discern what area he currently resided in, but a quick record search found only one ranger assigned to this area. Was Jon just that good? Or were the Sector Rangers falling that far behind?

Regardless, she knew he would come in here for food or a drink sooner or later. Better to wait here where she could have a more relaxed conversation instead of jumping him in the street. Until Jon arrived, Hera worked on her little R6 astromech. With it's top open, she kept talking to it as she 'operated' on its internals.

"So did you feel that?"

"DWoooO"

"I don't know what that sound means, but it didn't sound painful?"

"Wop wop- dwop."

"Ok now you're just messing with me."

Hera laughed and started on the process of continuing her work when Jon Callo himself walked in. Dressed in her green armor, Jedi symbol emblazoned on the front, she waved at him and called out, "Mr. Callo! Mind coming over and having a chat with me?" At that instant, Hera wondered if Jon was operating under a pseudonym and if she had just outed herself for how she knew him. Well, hopefully, he was as coolheaded as his father and would let it go.

Hera hoped.

@Eccles

 

[Jon Callo]

Jon had barely crossed the treshold of the cantina when a woman in green armor hailed him in too enthusiastic a way for strangers to greet each other. She knew him by name, but didn't call him ranger, strangely enough. Still, Jon had a duty and if someone was in need of him then he would oblige. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage, miss-" as he walked closer he noticed the symbol of the Jedi Order on her chest. He hadn't heard of any Jedi or Sith Order activities in the sector, but then he had been gone from his office for a couple of days and this could very well be a recent development.

Assuming she'd at least introduce herself, Jon took a seat nearby and motioned for the cantina owner to make him his usual. "I was out for a few days," he smiled, "I could say it was ranger business, but then I'd be lying."

The steaming cup of caf was placed on the table near him by the Klatoonian server and Jon thankfully took it in both hands. Rodians were cold-blooded and didn't really suffer from the cold like most humanoid species did, yet he did always enjoy the feeling of a hot cup of strong caf after his long rides across the planet. "Why did you seek out one of the Sector Rangers?"

@Black Noise

 

[Hera "The Joyful" Albion]

Hera listened to Jon, but that is not where her complete focus lay. Instead, her eyes were affixed with watching the young man, how he moved, the way the owner of the cantina understood him with only a gesture, the way he held his cup in both hands. This was a man who understood the value of establishing a good relationship with people, but it was also a man who saw the insignia of the Jedi upon Hera and immediately let his guard down. That would need to be worked on.

Smiling Hera snapped herself out of her trace and ordered a cup of caf for herself, it had been so long since she enjoyed that simple pleasure. Looking at Jon, she responded, "Albion, Hera Albion, and I did not seek out a Sector Ranger, I sought out you specifically. I recently came into knowledge about you that you may or may not know yourself." The caf arrived and Hera thanked the serving droid. Blowing gently on the cup, she continued, "You have the aptitude to become a Jedi."

At that, she would wait. That information needed to stew in the air for a minute and Hera needed to sip her drink. How Jon reacted to that information would largely guide Hera in how she continued their conversations. Be it disbelief, anger, astonishment, or even no reaction at all. No reaction, that was the worst one, because it meant more than stunned shock or simple disbelief. It would mean that Jon already knew what Hera said was true.

Smiling, she sipped the caf and added, "Sorry if that was a little abrupt, but the information that lead me to that conclusion was correct. I can sense it within you."

@Eccles

 

[Jon Callo]

Hera Albion, Jon thought that that name sounded familiar somehow. Had he heard it before, seen her before, perhaps? The rodian was silent for a moment and then seemed to remember a HoloNet Broadcast that he had seen the last time he'd been in town. The Jedi Hera Albion, ofcourse. It was the next thing that she said that caught him off guard.

'aptitude to become a Jedi'

He had known since the moment his fear-stricken father had send him off into the galaxy and far away from him and Jon's mother. There was little in this galaxy that could scare a man like Preef Callo and yet his own son's 'aptitude to become a Jedi' had definitely been one of them. If not so, then the old man would have never left behind his ranch here on Takodona to live in Hutt Space again. Or was it Tatooine where that murderous outlaw had settled now? Regardless, Hera would not see no reaction of disbelief, anger or astonishment and that would confirm to her that the rodian was already aware.

"It's been a long time since anyone ever noticed," the Sector Ranger sighed and for the first time actually took a sip of his hot caf. He let the silence exist between them. He wasn't much of a talker, anyway. That one came with the territory when you're a Sector Ranger that operated mostly alone for almost a decade. Then, finally after his third sip, "I always expected the Sith to find me first." to either kill him due to who his father was, or recruit him because of who his father was. Rodians might be literally cold-blooded, but Preef Callo was also the definition of a cold-blooded killer, too.

@Black Noise