"No, I don't think so... they just told me that the number of staff members would be lower this month because this area is busier and more janitors are needed. Why are you asking me this? Don't tell me it has to do with my kindness! Don't worry, I'm not a spy!" Faith replied, smiling and continuing to look at Layton with sincere eyes.
"All right, I believe you. It's just so strange that in all these months I've never had a 'new' colleague and now here you are, out of the blue" he replied, thinking that, although Voyager was very large and there were not many staff exchanges between its internal sectors, it was still strange to meet a girl never seen by mistake even in the lunchroom.
"Yes, you're right, it's kinda weird. I had never seen you before, but when I noticed that you were alone at the table, you seemed much more interesting than the others and I immediately felt the desire to get close and have a chat, 'colleague'! Hahah!" she continued to chuckle, following him to the closet door.
"Well, I've got work to do now, you better get to old Sam, he hates those who aren't on time" Layton added, taking his tools from the closet and then closing the door, starting his monotonous cleaning shift again.
"All right, thank you for the tip! It was nice to meet you, Layton! I'll see you around!" she exclaimed, walking away among all the other people who had left the lunchroom a few minutes earlier and waving at him with her hand.
"Bye, Faith..." he answered, in a tone of voice impossible to hear at that distance.
As life on the Voyager returned to normal after the daily break, the young janitor continued to think of the girl and in the meantime, he passed the broom up and down on the floor, almost without noticing the flowing of time.
Those eyes and that smile had captured him and he couldn't get Faith out of his head, despite trying to distract himself with his beloved music.
Some time before, during the first few months of boarding the ship, Layton had tried to befriend someone, but because of his slightly grumpy character and low social rank, he was often pushed away more or less kindly, causing a kind of self-defense mechanism that developed within him the thought that being alone was the right thing to do.
Time passed inexorably and he cleaned the floors of the corridors before the canteen, polishing and dusting the outside of the lockers, the sensors of the doors, and even their outer surfaces, minimizing the dust in the ship, which must have been a totally sterile place since there lived so many people for so long.
Every now and then, during his typical day, Layton also met other fellow janitors, most of whom were not his same age: a good chunk of the cleaning staff, in fact, consisted of people of both sexes and advanced age, all in their fifties, which did not help him to familiarize with them and forge firm friendships.
While most of the 25-year-old boys like him had already completed their studies on Earth, specializing in increasingly specific disciplines that were well paid aboard the Voyager and other similar spaceships of the W.O.U.S. (World Organization of the Unexplored Space), Layton, after school, had no intention of continuing his studies, deeming university life useless and unsuitable for his needs.
Despite this detail, since he was a child he had slightly higher than average intelligence: when he passed the written exams and physical tests to get to work aboard the Voyager, he had an incredibly high score, so much so that if he was a doctor or a mechanical engineer, he would have entered the top of the rankings.
Instead, he had to accept the role of janitor, refusing to work on Earth because of the disastrous period that enveloped America and all the other continents of the world.
Sometimes, during his shifts, Layton looked out of the ship's portholes, plunging his mind into the infinite darkness of space and thinking of the past, when it was a taboo for all mankind, an unexplored place that inspired poets and writers of all historical epochs.
Although the Voyager moved from one solar system to another and seemed to touch the stars and planets that passed by it as if it was something normal, he had always been fascinated by that greatness, by that unknown matter.
When he finished polishing the last shelf in the hallway, he looked at the digital clock he was wearing on his wrist and realized it was 7:32 p.m.
"Even today I finished about half an hour before. I have to get faster" he thought, heading back to the closet and neatly placing the broom and bucket inside, after making sure he wasted the dirty water.
In a hurry, he walked all over the corridor and passed over several side rooms, arriving at the end of Sector B, in the dorm area.
Unlike soldiers and higher-ranking workers, who had reserved cabins, similar to suites worthy of the best hotels, the janitors and cooks, along with other people who performed less prestigious jobs and tasks, shared large bedrooms, filled with beds and bathrooms, which offered essential services for a decent stay.
Layton approached his ID tag to the sensor and the sliding door opened, emitting the usual slight hiss.
Inside his room, which was part of the men's section of the 'Dormitory' area, there were 8 beds.
In the last period, he had learned that if he could finish his day at work without ever stopping or wasting time, he would gain half an hour to relax before dinner and be able to return to his room to cultivate his hobby: reading.
He sat on his own bed, which was the lowest of a bunk bed, and opened his personal mini locker, equipped with a key and attached to the wall next to him, on which each bed-station had its own night light bulb.