"A Wonderful Talent & Light Has Been Extinguished."
Author: CdnJAGScribe
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Rating: M
Classification:
Spoilers:
Summary:
DISCLAIMER: The characters Harm Rabb, Jr., Sarah "Mac" Mackenzie, Meg Austin, AJ Chegwidden, Bud Roberts, Harriet Sims-Roberts et al. belong (in concept if not name) to CBS/Bellisarius. Animal and all OC characters are the property of Heather and Hugo Chikamori. No profit is being made from this story, nor is any infringement intended.
Author's Note: In an interview in 2012, Patrick Labyorteaux was asked whether he liked Star Trek or not… His response: I am a huge nerd. However, of the Star Wars variety. Love Star Trek, but my heart is with the Rebel Alliance.
JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA, December 27, 2016
Captain Bud Roberts, US Navy JAG Corps Chief of Staff had called up his Twitter account where he followed his favourite actors. Oh, he'd catch hell from VADM Harmon Rabb Jr. if his CO found out that he was looking at tweets during work hours. But ever since he had found out that William Shatner, one of his favorite Star Trek captains, had tweeted: I ask everyone to stop for a moment and send special thoughts to carrieffisher, it had taken him by pause. According to the news, she had stopped breathing on a flight from London to Los Angeles.
He known that the vivacious and fiery Carrie Fisher who had carried on a friendly Twitter war with Bill about which was better: Star Trek or Star Wars. Neither would give an inch, but admirably, they had kept the taunts civil and each considered each other a friend. Bud smiled a bit as he recalled how the media had gone on and on about the verbal battle.
Bud fell firmly into the Star Trek camp as far as fandom went. He generally preferred to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, however on occasion he would drop his money on a Star Wars film. Of course, he thought Star Wars was more a space soap opera with the sexual tension between Leia and Han hyped up to a will they get together by the end of the trilogy. After all, he was only seven when the original Star Wars trilogy came out. And he had just recently gone to see Rogue One with Harriet on a night out away from the kids, properly minded of course, by an adult babysitter and their oldest son. After he and Harriet had left the theatre; he'd commented to his wife that the CGI effects were a little too plastic.
Star Trek had its share of detractors too, but not to the extent of Star Wars. And though Bud shied away from the SciFi forums online, he'd found that there were websites dedicated to the dissection of both series and online wars about which was better than which.
So engrossed was Bud in his mental ruminations, that it took a moment for him to register that William Shatner had tweeted yet again: I'm deeply saddened to learn of the death of Carrie Fisher. I will miss our banterings. A wonderful talent & light has been extinguished. The shock that emanated through Bud felt like a mule-kick. Princess Leia was gone… was all his mind registered, and disbelief coursed through his body like a tidal-wave. She had been stable, on life-support in the hospital in Los Angeles.
About an hour later, when he had finished gazing out the window; work being impossible to do; disciplined or not, he noticed another Trek stalwart and one that had crossed the Star Trek/Star Wars divide having voiced a Neimodian for Star Wars The Clone Wars animated series, George Takei who had tweeted: May her soul rest in eternal peace, as we return her to the heavens, in a galaxy far, far away.
At that point a soft knock on the door caused him to look up…and nearly freeze in place.
"I thought the news this morning would be a bit of a shock." Vice-Admiral Harmon Rabb said quietly. "Heard about it on the breaking news tab on the TV." The admiral kept it on in his office for the latest up to date news reports regarding foreign affairs.
"I'm sorry, sir, just ruminating over the fact that someone that we all loved just passed away suddenly." Bud stammered. "I didn't mean to let it affect my work."
"I think we're all in shock. Since Friday, we'd all been pulling that she'd make it when we heard about her heart attack." Harm said as he sat down in the chair opposite Bud's. "I was fourteen when Star Wars first came out. I remember asking my mom for money to go see it the weekend that it came out. The line was around the block and then some. But it was worth every bit of the wait to see it."
"So you understand…" Bud indicated, his eyes travelling to the worn wood grain of the desk that he was sitting at, then lifting his head to meet his superior officer's.
"It's hard to understand why a celebrity's death resonates with us so much, when we haven't met them in person, when a death on a battlefield is just another casualty, whether we refer to it as the death of a comrade-in-arms or a brother; unless we've served with them, we think, oh no…we lost another one without knowing who he or she was as a person." Harm looked at Bud. "But it's in their celebrity that we see who they are; that they open up their entire lives to us, and we think that we know them in turn and thus it hits us much harder when they go. And I guess Carrie Fisher was such an icon. Star Wars is a phenomenon; a American cultural legacy that spans the globe."
"We thought the big three were untouchable." Bud replied solemnly, "That they'd always be with us."
"Sort of makes you take a hard look at your mortality…" Harm wryly commented.
"Did all that looking in Afghanistan…" Bud answered. "2002 nearly got me…"
Harm nodded silently for a moment, then gave voice to his own opinion. "And I'll never forget that feeling of sitting out in the waiting room wondering if you'd pull through. It hits a whole lot harder when it's close to home." The two men locked eyes and nodded slowly, each understanding silently that their emotions were close to the surface, but the manly reticence to display them kept them silent. Harm finally, after a long moment, said, "C'mon over to my office…" as the two men slowly got out of their seat and walked over to the well known alcove that lead to the Judge Advocate General's office.
"Two cans of soda, please, two glasses with ice? Yeoman." Harm said to the yeoman sitting out by the desk who nodded and hurried to do the admiral's bidding. When they were sitting in the admiral's office, Harm slowly cracked open the cans of soda and poured them individually into the glasses. When he was done, he passed one to Bud. "Sorry we can't have a real toast with whiskey, because we're not allowed to do that while on duty, so this will have to do…" He raised his glass… "To our Princess…" He smiled remembering the Star Wars poster that he'd asked Mom and Frank to get him. Even at fourteen one had to have their crushes on actresses.
"And General…" Bud grinned as he raised his glass. "May the Force Be With Her."
Harm took a sip as Bud did the same. "Always."
Rest In Peace, Carrie Fisher (1956-2016)