Sector 1 - Axis
Abdullah Al Hakir
Abdullah strode through the empty Command Deck, heart thumping in his chest. His stomach was doing flips and his legs felt like rubber; all he wanted to do was lie down.
The Command Deck retinue was still on leave. Normally, the terminals here were thriving with activity. Personnel pored over data and communications and filtered information for easy processing by the High Officers.
Tonight, they would get their orders, and tomorrow they would flood back to Denigen’s Fist. In a few days, they would be back on patrol.
Abdullah would have to send similar orders when he got back to his chambers. The thought was disorienting. How many of the soldiers he was in command of even knew who he was? A handful? Less? He would be delivering orders to over sixty thousand soldiers daily. Most of his time would be spent on the bridge with the Captain.
He’d dreamed of one day acquiring a post like this, but that hope was unrealistic. He never actually thought it might happen.
A whisper of sound distracted him. He could have sworn he’d heard a voice.
There. It sounded like a child. He spun, trying to pinpoint the location in the empty hall. He saw a small light on the far side of the Command Deck. The Captain’s private office.
Abdullah cocked his head and listened. Now that he’d pinpointed the sound, it was easier to make out. It sounded like a young girl singing softly. The notes had an eerie echoing effect in the empty hall. Did the Captain have children?
It was by no means forbidden, but unexpected. Children had a way of humanizing people that no self-respecting Captain would tolerate. Many had children, of course, but they never brought them or their families onboard the ship.
But then again, he was the only person on the Command Deck today. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to know someone was here.
He should leave. He had a duty to perform, and he didn’t dare mess it up. Yet now his curiosity was piqued. He wanted to know if he was correct if the Captain was a mother. The thought was actually comforting. After everything else that had happened today, knowing that she was just a normal human with a family would do wonders for his psyche.
After a short internal debate, he walked to the cracked door. His heels clicked across the floor and he paused, wondering if he should knock.
Instead, he gently pushed the door open. The room was small and sparse. Old-fashioned weapons hung on the left wall—Captain Schmidt had been a collector—and a faux fireplace glowed in the corner. The floor was carpeted in a maroon plush material. A one-way mirror gave vantage over the Command Deck behind him.
The only furniture was an ornate wooden desk with a rolling chair. A small girl, no more than six or seven, stood beside the desk. She held a doll in her hand and was singing to it. She wore a sea-green dress, and her brown hair was done up in a ponytail. She didn’t notice him come in.
She was holding the feet of the doll against her stomach and running her free hand through its hair, rocking absently back and forth on the carpet. Abdullah glanced warily around. There was no one to watch or supervise her.
“Hello,” he said softly. He had to repeat himself before she glanced at him. She stopped dancing and clutched the doll to her chest, but her sudden look of fear was replaced by a wide grin within seconds.
“Hi,” she said, looking shyly at her shoes. “I’m Abi.”
“I’m Abdullah,” he said, patting his chest. “Is your mother around?”
She shook her head. “No, my mother isn’t here. My daddy is here, though. Do you need to speak to him? I can go find him.”
“No, that’s all right,” Abdullah said, confused. The man on deck with Captain Kristi, most likely. Maybe he was replacing the deceased Sister Portia Nace as the onboard Minister.
If that was the case, Abdullah felt sorry for him.
“Do you like Betsy?” the girl asked. It took him a second to realize she meant the doll.
“She’s quite pretty,” he offered. Abi beamed.
“She’s a mommy. But my dad wouldn’t let me bring the other dolls. He made me put them in the trunk.”
Abdullah nodded. “Do you have a lot of dolls?”
“Uh huh, I have lots. Do you have any?”
“No,” Abdullah said.
“Oh,” the girl said, looking back at her shoes. “My boyfriend has a lot of dolls.”
“Who’s your boyfriend?” Abdullah asked.
“Justin Tommy Miles,” the girl said. The name sounded vaguely familiar.
“Is he a singer?”
“Uh huh. He said he’s going to marry me one day. He said so.”
“Mmhmm,” Abdullah said. He decided it wasn’t worth mentioning that the singer was probably three times older than the girl or that the young star had several other girlfriends his own age. “Is your father a Minister?” he asked.
“Um…I don’t know,” the girl said. “Do you want to hold Betsy?”
Abdullah shook his head. “No, she looks comfortable where she is,” he said. “I need to go back to work. It was nice meeting you, Abi.”
“Nice meeting you too,” she said, clipping each word with a nod and grinning. She spun and resumed stepping, humming to herself and rocking the doll in her arms. Abdullah watched for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around everything that had happened. The Ceremony, speaking with the Captain, and now meeting this little girl.
He couldn’t. None of it made sense. With a sigh, he walked back out of the Captain’s Office and away from the Command Deck. It was late evening, and he had orders to deliver.
