"And why would they believe such an excuse?" Faith replied, imagining the scene.
"Security men are as stupid as tree trunks, they don't even know how a simple object like this works... I doubt they're going to ask us questions that we can't answer. At worst, they're going to kick us out of the sector C and report it to Sam, who can easily read and ignore it, without acting in any way" Layton concluded, waiting to hear Faith's next response.
"Mmmh... yes, that's a good plan! You managed to amaze me again, Lay! You're a really smart guy, I never expected to find someone on board like you!" she exclaimed, complimenting him on his wit and closing her eyes, smiling.
Layton, unfailing to receive compliments, began to blush and was forced to turn the other way to prevent the situation from becoming too embarrassing.
"Um... yes, okay... thank you. Now let's go... there is no time to lose" he said in a confused voice, pretending to be an adult man accustomed to receiving compliments from women.
"Fuck, Layton! What's wrong?! Why are you blushing?! Stupid! You're not going to tell me that you've started to like this stupid little girl, you moron!" he thought, holding back his embarrassment and waiting for his cheeks to return to their original color, as he and Faith walked toward the entrance to the A-C inter-warehouse.
Just as they turned the last bend before their target, following the corridor, the main lights, that is, led bars placed at every corner of the ceiling, went out, allowing the crew members to rest without interruption until the next morning.
To maintain the biological rhythm as close as possible to the Earth's, the entire BS Voyager electrical system was designed based on a central clock, located in the control room.
Through the hours marked by that clock, the rhythms of the day and night were marked by the turning on and off of the main lights, thus preventing the crew members, without the altercation of day and night, from going crazy, given the long period they would have to spend onboard the ship.
"Fuck, the lights!" Faith said, continuing to look around, feeling like a thief.
"The game starts now" Layton replied, trying to arouse in her a little spirit of adventure and make her forget for a moment the fear of being discovered.
The two janitors stopped around the corner from which the entrance to the warehouse that would lead them to Sector C was visible.
On the left side there was their door of interest, while on the right, the corridor continued to the main entrance of that sector, which although not visible from their location, was certainly guarded by guards.
"Come, follow me! Move without making too much noise and above all... don't stop!" Layton whispered, who after taking courage, walked down the hall and reached the warehouse door.
Faith, not imagining her partner starting to walk quickly like a rocket, took a few more seconds to reach him, carrying like him, a broom on her shoulders and pieces to clean stuck in her belt.
At the top of the door, a long, thin metal tag said:
*Inter-warehouse A-C*
And on the side of the door, another circular sign, decidedly more artisanal:
*Prohibited access to non-maintenance workers*
Quickly making sure that that door actually led to their destination, Layton pulled Sam's special ID out of his pocket and approached the sensor, while young Faith looked over her shoulder, making sure they were alone in the hallway.
A slight beep echoed in the area and on the small display above the sensor for the ID tag, a writing appeared, reporting the code and the name of the person who had just unlocked the door.
'Samuel Stevenson – patent code: 6816815651'
*TZZ*
The door opened immediately and, without thinking twice, the two companions entered the inter-warehouse.
As soon as the door closed behind them, the white lights on the ceiling of the small room, after a few seconds employed to warm up, turned on, completely illuminating the area.
The interior of that warehouse was not much different from the others, if not for the size, exactly doubled: a long shelf with various tools of the trade on the left wall and junk of all kinds resting on the right wall, including cardboard containing new equipment and detergents, still packed.
"How sad, this also looks like a normal warehouse... it's just a little bit bigger, but it sucks as the others" Layton commented, moving the half-open cartoons lying on the floor out of their original positions.
"Sshhh! Now you must be quiet, Lay! On the other side of that door, there is Sector C, which, if we have understood correctly, should now only be populated by security men! Let's avoid making a noise, they could hear us!" Faith whispered, resting her finger on her mouth and suggesting her companion lower his voice, still failing to realize that their 'mission' had just begun.
Layton snorted as if annoyed that the girl had said a wise thing and after taking a quick look between the items inside the shelves, he proceeded to the door, believing that there was nothing interesting in that room.
"Hey, wait. We have a flashlight for biological tracks, but not a normal lamp... don't you think it's stupid now that the lights are completely turned off?" Faith asked, who was trying to imagine what was going to happen a few minutes later, finding herself in the darkness of Sector C.
"Mmmh yeah... take it if you want, I won't need it... just remember that you will have to keep it off all the time, otherwise they will discover us in a jiffy" he replied again in a superficial and haughty tone.
"This is true, but it could always come in handy... I thought we'd wait a while before we got into Sector C without even knowing what we're looking for... we were too reckless, Layton. Why are you in such a hurry?" Faith asked again, marveling at her partner's concern, based on a simple guess.
Layton snapped towards her, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Why?! How can you ask me such a stupid question?! The reason is obvious, I don't want this virus or whatever it is to compromise the Voyager's journey! We got to the 185th day without any problems, why risk right now?!"
"Not even the captain of the ship would care that much... why do you care so much about the success of the mission? I'm just curious, Lay" the girl continued, trying to be delicate and kind.
"It's nothing special, it's just that I don't want to waste my time and risk dying on a miserable ship like this, away from my family and dispersed into unknown space. Now just stop wasting our time with this nonsense, let's go on" he replied again, who was evidently hiding the real motivation of his concern.
"Okay, let's go" Faith answered, positioning herself next to him and waiting for him to open the door.
Layton approached Sam's ID card to the internal sensor and the door leading to Sector C opened.
At the same time, the interior lights of the warehouse, which were calibrated to minimize electricity consumption, like every room on BS Voyager, suddenly turned off.
With no light behind them and no light in the hallway in which they came out, Layton and Faith find themselves plunged into darkness.
"Fuck, I can't see anything!" he whispered in a low voice, trying to keep a low profile.
*tic*
"I told you it was going to help us" Faith replied with a smile, referring to the normal flashlight she had just turned on.
"Where... where exactly in Sector C are we?" Layton asked again, knowing that his adventure partner knew those corridors like a book.
"This is the east wing. This corridor continues for about fifty meters and then makes a U-turn, continuing parallel on the other side, without closing the circle."
"So... if the corridor is U-shaped and the direction is unique, it means that to return to this point, we will have to retrace the same way back..." Layton hypothesized, trying to predict his own movements.
"Correct. Most of the doors in this first corridor are offices and laboratories, while on the other side there are the personal chambers of medical officials and other scientists working in this field" Faith continued, providing a detailed explanation.
Layton looked in front of them, but despite the corridor being straight, he could not see the main entrance to Sector C, described by Faith.
Both took a step forward but immediately stopped, noting that the bucket Faith was carrying produced a lot of noise, amplified by that absolute silence.
"Maybe I'd better leave it here" she said, resting the bucket in a corner on the ground near the Inter-warehouse's door.
"The cameras... where are they?" Layton asked, who wanted to know that important detail right away.