Chapter 3: A Jedi's Calling
In a moderately furnished hangar of a quiet, Mid-Rim world, a large, chunky man with wild and yet tamed locks of golden hair approached his battered ship. Although he could never be classified as obese, he defined width and cast an ominous shadow wherever he went. The bulky size showed up every other generation in his father's side of the family and in his basic framework, he resembled his late cousin, Raynar Thul, except that massive amounts of workout and muscle building had long ago distinguished him from the first Jedi Knight of the family.
The man was in his forties, though few could tell because of the ruggedness that was written all over his skin and his bulging muscles, which he almost never bothered to hide beneath sleeves. Although he was affluent enough to afford quality clothing, the man resorted to simple tank top with torn sleeves, a pair of flexible, green trousers, and a cheap but practical utility belt. On the rare occasions involving his wealthy family's affairs, he would permit a crimson tank top instead of the usual white, a pair of yellow trousers, and a violet belt around his waistline, but on that day, he was obviously going about his normal business.
As the Jedi strode toward his ship, his flowing Jedi cloak swept and mopped the already shiny, durasteel floor beneath his well-paced steps, dancing to the thumps of the dull, black boots.
"Cousin Tant! What did the Council say?" Asked an enthusiastic, teenage boy as he ran at near lightspeed to catch up with the older man.
"For the millionth time, Cay Sunrider, I'm not your cousin." The man growled a low, menacing growl without altering his pace or destination. The very movement of his jaws and his arms suddenly drew emphasis on the fat that was caked over all the hunks of muscles, from the massive strip that hung from his cheekbones and his jaws to the layers that covered his already thick arms to the belly that rolled menacingly from above his belt. To those who never glimpsed a second glance at the man, the belt seemed to be the only thing holding off a flood of fat that threatened to come from his massive belly at any nanosecond. He added. "And to you, I'm Master Thul. I don't know where you got that cutesy nickname, but it stops here."
The boy, who contrasted the older male in every imaginable way except for hair color, whimpered slightly as he almost stopped, the hurt evident in his jade-green eyes, which were welling with tears. The older Jedi ignored the child and continued before the boy could protest. "This business does not concern you. Go back to your studies."
"But you're my Master. Aren't you supposed to take me with you on your missions?" Asked the slim, almost too thin boy, his large, green yes welling with hope.
"Not this one. I've told you before; I only took you to save your hide from embarrassment. My father would have disowned me if your frail mother shed a single tear over you. Now go back before I make you." The large man replied gruffly as he stopped to face the child that's finally managed to catch up with the bulky Jedi.
"Thanks." The frightened boy bowed his head slightly in resignation and then added wistfully. "So that means you do think of my mother as your aunt. That makes us cousins."
"No, that does not!" The man's voice was raised to a booming roar as he began to unleash his shortening temper on the boy. "Your mother ceased to be my aunt when she remarried. I'm only doing this because my father has delusions about family attachment."
"But he's iUncle/i Tyko." Protested the boy, who was convinced that he could change the older Jedi's beliefs.
"Go and thank him for letting you call him that, Sunrider." Grumbled the heavyset man.
"Mom told me to do that all the time. She said I'm a lot like my brother in this way." The child mumbled with a trembling voice.
Shock utterly consumed the heavyset Jedi as the words landed on his ears. How nuts did his aunt go? How could she compare this brat to his… no, as much as the man hated to admit it, itheir/i shared childhood hero. In the child's eyes, the man saw many innocent, idealistic delusions typical of the age. For an instant, he wanted to roar at his apprentice all the hideous truths that would have eaten those foolish ideals like acid, but the large, watery eyes began to melt the chunky man from the inside and he turned away his gaze with a mournful sigh. Perhaps, at a much later date, he would unveil his apprentice's eyes with regards to their shared relative, but then was definitely premature. Maybe, if ever, opinions and hidden facts would roll out of the man's mouth when the apprentice has mastered the concept of emotional pain. His lips barely moved as he uttered his soft response. "Do what she says."
When the boy nodded and turned back, the man finally ordered his landing ramp to descend and climbed into the ship. His hand automatically reached for the ignition lever, but he could neither bring his gaze up to meet the displays nor pull the lever down to start the ship, for his encounter with his apprentice left him with heavy thoughts. For a moment, he lingered on the memories of Cay's brother, no, half-brother. The old Jedi was a mere child when Cay's brother waved that silver lightsaber like the family hero he was thought to be. Then, just as Tantal Thul began to mature and see Cay's brother's faults, the beloved cousin suffered a horrible fate that he could never deserve. Had Thul been a weaker man, a tear would have rolled down his rugged cheek.
Thul's thoughts then wandered onto the Cay's mother, who married and had the family hero with his father's older brother, the ill-fated Uncle Bornan. He did not know his aunt as well as his father did, but he knew that her life was filled with heartbreak and tragedy, save one interval that lasted almost two decades. First, she lost her home and her family and many years later, her husband and Raynar, who was her only child at the time. To make matters worse, a small mistake produced an enemy with a rotten temper, who froze her in carbonite for years. When she was finally rescued, she came out weak and frail.
Thul's grip on the lever tightened and his muscles tensed, but he refused to let the lever descend into its proper position. It was his father who rescued the woman he once called aunt, but as a twisted thank you, she left the family by marrying a Jedi named Sunrider, who, despite the surname, actually represented the House of Qel-Droma. Anger burned in his veins, and he carefully raised his mental shields so that his apprentice would not be exposed. The emotional distance of Jedi training and the ways in which Aryn Dro Sunrider doted on her last child had created a naïve idealist in the child, and then was not the time for the optimism to shatter.
The lever finally came down with a heavy crank and the satisfying hum of the engines soon followed. The ship collected its rusted landing ramp and rotated until it faced the hangar's exit. Then its forward propulsion engines reached half of its maximum burn and the ship shot out of the hangar and towards Nal Hutta.
For the first time in a seeming year, Tantal Thul's thoughts returned to his task at hand, which was to infiltrate and dissolve Boulbog the Hutt's criminal activities. It was a dirty job, well suited for a half-Onderonian born of a wealthy nobleman and a rogue warrior. As he punched in the calculations for the hyperspace jump, waves of regret washed over his insides and he, for some inexplicable reason, wished that he took Cay along. As if to accompany Thul's emotions, subtle noises that blended with and yet contrasted the music of the roaring engines temporarily caught the man's attention. He quickly dismissed the noise and sent his ship disappearing into hypserspace.
A thick, sturdy hand slid off the ignition levers and smacked Thul's greasy forehead as he sighed heavily. How had he gotten himself such an impossible task? Warrior of the Onderonian wilds he may be, but bailing out Numa Secura and Nolaa Rar, the previous Jedi spies, and then worming his way into Boulbog's ranks would be suicide, to say the least.