"Yes, of course. Let's go" she replied, suspiciously.
On the way from the lunchroom, Layton didn't say a word, thinking several times about the speech he had eavesdropped just a few minutes before.
As he was immersed in his thoughts, the two friends arrived in front of the machine handing out the food and Faith ordered her plate first.
*Mushroom mousse and hot bread selected, please, approach the ID tag for payment*
The AI spoke in its usual female-robotic voice, and the girl paid 10 dollars for a simple mushroom soup, which after a few seconds was extracted from the lower drawer, along with the usual glass of water.
"I can't afford to spend that sum... I'm going to take my usual tofu salad... I must do it nonchalantly, I can't risk making bad figures with a girl I just met" he thought, focusing on the fact that, after picking up his plate, Faith stayed behind him, waiting for him to go looking for a table together.
*Tofu salad selected, please, approach the ID target for payment*
*TIC*
Fortunately, she didn't notice that the meal ordered by Layton cost only 3.50 USD, as she was busy locating a free table.
"There it is, I found it! It's next to where we sat for lunch!" she exclaimed, grabbing him by the sleeve of his jacket and pulling him towards her.
The two janitors sat down at the table lastly, making sure that all the rest of the people had already taken their seats and that no one would break their privacy.
Layton greatly appreciated the gesture of his new colleague, who evidently liked his personality and cared about their newfound friendship.
"Oookay, well... now that we're sitting down and we're far from indiscreet ears, do you want to tell me what's bothering you?" Faith asked, pulling out the spoon and grabbing a slice of bread.
"Uhm? What?" Layton said, who had already swallowed the first morsel of that salad, which despite being abundantly seasoned, was almost entirely tasteless.
"Come on, Layton... I don't know you well yet, but your gaze doesn't lie... you seem much more thoughtful than this morning, what's wrong with you? I swear I'll keep the secret, like a real loyal scout!" she exclaimed again, making with her hand the symbol of the Boy Scouts she was part of on Earth when she was a child, joking about it.
"Nothing important, let's say my day at work ended unexpectedly..."
"Uuuh! Wow! Something strange must have happened then! Come on, go on! Please, Lay... life on this ship is boring enough! Knowing I have to spend another 6 months here gives me goosebumps!"
"... Lay?" he asked, stopping eating and looking at Faith with a confused air, bewildered by her big deep blue eyes.
"Yes… Lay! Otherwise, how else could I shorten your name? Ton... Yton... Lalay... Ton-ton? Hahaha!" Faith chuckled, trying to ironize on everything to bring a smile back to her friend's face.
"Lay will be fine" he replied, smiling shyly and eating another bite of salad.
"Yes, but you haven't answered my question! What happened?"
Layton, before speaking, looked around, searching for the group of men in uniform: they were sitting more than twenty meters from their table, almost on the other side of the huge room, and they were talking grouped together, perhaps continuing to discuss that subject.
"Can you keep a secret?" he asked, looking into his interlocutor's eyes.
"Wowo! I knew it was something cool! Go, tell me!"
"Try not to attract attention... do you see those four men over there? Those who wear the uniform that you put under the astronaut suit..." he whispered, as if he was a spy and the young girl one of his accomplices.
Pretending to pick something up from the ground, Faith moved her voluminous red hair from her face and looked in the direction indicated by her friend.
"Yes, those who are talking to each other... so what?"
"After I finished my shift, I left the tools in the usual closet and started walking to the lunchroom. Just before your 'assault' behind my back, I found myself walking behind them and I inadvertently eavesdropped on what they were saying..."
"Laaaay... you shouldn't do that! It's not polite!" she replied, putting her hand over her mouth and closing her eyes as she smiled.
"I heard that they were talking suspiciously, almost whispering and I approached slightly to hear better. Apparently, in Sector C, the one you worked in until yesterday, there was a clinical emergency involving one of the crew's doctors, someone named Phil" he continued, his eyes on the group of men, making sure no one around them heard his speech.
"A clinical emergency? What do you mean? Do you mean a disease?!" she asked, beginning to get scared.
"I think so... they were talking about a patient who died of unknown causes a few days after seeing the doctor... apparently, Phil contracted his same illness and now his room has been quarantined! They said very few people can access it! Some of them must be a member of security because they were talking about a tip from a colleague..."
"Eh?! A virus! I knew it! I knew it was impossible to keep every environment sterile and I knew that the medical tests done to all the crew members were inaccurate! I know a girl who boarded the Voyager with some sniffle and..."
"Faith!" Layton interrupted, stopping the girl's speech, which would otherwise have diverged in other topics that had nothing to do with it.
Her eyes remained focused on his face, as she hung from his lips.
"A 'sniffle' has never killed anyone! We're talking about something bigger here! Something they don't want to know around, do you understand?" he said, stopping for a moment to talk and leaning back to his chair, pretending nothing as a woman walked next to their table to go to the food machine.
Faith looked up, trying to imagine what could have happened so badly, and shortly after, when the woman was far enough away, she began to speak again.
"Then perhaps that's the real reason behind my sector switch. It seemed strange to me that they suddenly needed more staff units in Sector B than in the C one... You're right, they don't want the word to spread" she continued, touching her chin and trying to reason with her friend.