"Layton! Hello, what are you doing here?" Sam greeted, after sending down the bite of cheeseburger he was eating while watching his favorite TV series.
"Still that shitty sitcom, Sam?" Layton asked, who had some confidence with him, leaving Faith openmouthed, who didn't think someone could be so direct and scurrilous with his boss.
Sam returned behind the monitor, which was suddenly turned off, cleaned his mouth, and stood up, putting the shirt that had risen up because of his big belly back in his pants.
"If you had told me that you would come to visit me with that beautiful young lady, I would have made myself more presentable! You're always the same!" Sam continued, walking around his desk and approaching his two unexpected guests.
"Hahah! No problem, sir!" Faith answered, feeling the duty to respond to that statement.
"Sir? Who did you get me for, for an old fart? I told you this morning, just call me Sam!" he replied, trying to be nice to the good-looking girl.
"Sam... we came here for an important matter... Sam?!" Layton exclaimed after realizing that his boss was not taking his eyes off Faith, who was beginning to feel embarrassed.
"Tell me, boy... I thought you were at dinner, what happened?"
"Our dinner is over, like that of all the other crew members. The problem is what happened next... while we were in the corridors, heading to the dormitories, three guards risked making us fall while running like madmen... The problem is, they were all armed. One of them dropped a huge rifle!" Layton replied, emphasizing the word 'rifle' to make Sam realize it was a weapon he had never seen.
"And what's so strange? Security members are total idiots, I've always said that… it's not the first time some of them have stumbled and looked like shit in front of everyone. Also, there is nothing strange, they always carry weapons with them, although not everyone knows how to use them" Sam answered calmly, placing his shirt inside his pants and cleaning the mayonnaise he had next to his mouth with his hand.
"Sam... maybe you didn't understand... they were terrified! I've never seen guards so scared! Do you think I'd have come all the way here to bother you if I hadn't really noticed something unusual? I know you never eat in the lunchroom at this time, I would never have allowed myself to interrupt your dinner" Layton replied, looking his superior in the eye, who after those words began to suspect that he was talking seriously.
"What do you think, girl? Not that I don't believe him... even if he's a thug, I love him very much, and I know he'd never tell me a lie, but... do you think those men were really afraid of something?" old Sam asked Faith, who didn't expect to receive a point-blank question.
"Oh, come on!" Layton snorted meanwhile, considering that speech a waste of time.
"Yes, Sam... Layton's telling the truth. One of them risked knocking me to the ground, they ran so fast... moreover, after getting up and grabbing back the rifle, he started running again towards the end of the corridor, as if nothing had happened. I'm new to Sector A, but I don't think these things happen every day and given the late hour, I doubt it was a drill" she replied, trying to be as clear as possible.
"Mmmh... and where were they going?" the janitor's boss asked again, sipping his soda with the straw and placing the glass back on his desk.
"That way there's the Sector C access! You know what happened to that doctor, don't you?" Layton said.
"Doctor? What doctor are you talking about?"
"A certain Phil... I know for sure that he has contracted a serious illness and that no one can cure it... the situation has become so serious that they have quarantined his room and no one but authorized personnel can enter it!"
"Phil? Do you mean Phillip Klein, the German doctor? Naah, that guy's a charlatan full of himself, I'm sure he just wants to be the center of attention..." Sam replied, trying to calm his young friend and subordinate.
"Then how do you justify the episode we witnessed a few minutes ago? The fact that the guards were running like sneers to Sector C? And Faith... why has she been moved to Sector A? I'm sure our staff is fully booked!" Layton continued, to make Sam think about these details.
"In fact, that was very strange... I don't know why, but I got an unusual notification a few days ago before her transfer. Security has asked me to redistribute the janitors in Sector C and to reduce their number by 75%. I obeyed without wondering why, but I still thought it was a strangeness" the man at the desk answered, scratching his chin and looking towards the ceiling, putting together the various pieces of his memories.
"That's it, did you see?! Something's wrong! We absolutely have to find out what it is, we cannot allow someone to fuck up the whole mission! If they haven't said anything, it's because they're afraid to create panic among the crew members!"
"And what do you want me to do? What do I have to do with this? You should ask some security guy, not me that I'm in charge of janitors!"
"Uhm... excuse the meddling" Faith said in a low voice, interrupting the speech and raising her hand, timidly taking a step forward, toward the desk.
Her two interlocutors turned curious, not expecting her intervention.
"Sam, I just told Layton the same things, trying to reassure him... but everything changed when those men passed by us running. They did not have their weapons on their belts, but in their hands, as if they were ready to use them at any moment. We were promised that there would be no kind of illness aboard the Voyager and each of us before we left underwent a myriad of medical tests. Don't you think we should try to figure out what's going on? If the AI hasn't announced it publicly yet, they want to keep it a secret and that would be the first real secret since we left! Isn't that exciting?" Faith continued, trying to convince Sam to help them out.