Old Sam

"It's true, I never would have got that! Hahaha! If you really want to read one of my books is fine, go ahead... but don't think it'll be a bestseller! Surely you've read so many more good novels in the past!" she replied, still embarrassed by the argument.

"Don't be modest, I'm sure they will be beautiful! I have nothing to tell you about me, my life is quite monotonous and boring. Come on, I want you to give me one of your novels and you will choose which one" Layton continued, inviting his friend out of the lunchroom and heading to the women's dormitories.

She smiled and followed him, continuing to talk about this and that along with him.

Just as they walked side by side, they heard a fast-paced sound of footsteps on the metal floor, approaching them.

"Hey, watch out!" Layton exclaimed, who showing good reflexes, pushed Faith slightly towards the wall, so that the three men who were running nonstop passed, who would otherwise have hit them in full.

One of them, to dodge Layton, slightly changed the direction of his run and stumbled upon his own feet, falling to the ground.

Inadvertently, the man, who was a guard, dropped a large rifle from his hands and after less than a second grabbed it and got up, restarting to run back toward his colleagues, who did not stop for a moment.

"What the hell is going on?!" Faith gasped, after realizing that Layton had just prevented her from falling to the ground like that man.

Layton, before answering, looked behind him, noting that other people were still looking in that direction, having nimbly dodged the three guards.

"I don't know, they were three members of security and they seemed to be in a particular hurry... one of them also dropped his rifle, which means it must be a serious thing! I've never had anything like this happen to me. Is that any way that... oh, wait! Fuck!" Layton exclaimed again, grabbing Faith's arm and walking away from the people who, like them, had just come out of the lunchroom.

"Hey... hey! Easy, Layton! Wait a minute!" she said, who was freed from his grip at the same time.

"That way... this corridor leads to Sector C, isn't it?" he asked with a frightened air.

"Uhm... yes. In that way, or at the end of the other corridor, there" she said, pointing in another direction.

"Something serious has happened, I feel it! That doctor, that... Phil. We absolutely need to find out what happened, we can't stand by and do anything while some men shoot each other aboard our ship, our home! Come, let's get to Sam, I need to talk to him!" he replied, turning to the dorms and walking fast.

Faith, despite still being confused by what had just happened, followed him.

"Wait! Lay! What will you do?! Those men were armed, you said it! It's dangerous to meddle in this, we're going back to the lunchroom and wait for new orders! I'm sure in a few minutes the AI will tell us what happened and they will solve all kinds of problems!" Faith yelled, trying to attract the attention of Layton, who continued to walk without ever turning back.

As they walked down the hallway, the two friends noticed that all meeting rooms, offices, and workshops were closed, because all the crew members were still in the lunchroom area and realized that only a few people beside them had seen the armed guards running out of control.

"Come on, Sam should be in his office, he can't stand eating in the company of other people" Layton said.

Faith followed him to the same room where she was interviewed by their manager that morning, and when they arrived at her door, they knocked, pressing a small red button next to the recognition sensor.

A metal tag on the door reported his name, indicating to those who didn't know him that that room was his personal office, in which only he could enter, in addition to the Captain of the ship and the Security Manager, who were able to access every room on the spaceship through their ID tag, for safety reasons.

'Mr. Samuel Stevenson

BS Voyager Department of Cleaning and Sanitizing Manager

Patent code: 6816815651'

After a few seconds of ringing the doorbell, the automated door opened and they both entered the room.

Its interior was relatively small, and a bulky library full of folders with documents, scattered sheets, and paperwork of various kinds occupied a whole wall.

In front of the door instead, there was a large desk and behind it, the 'old Sam', sitting behind the big screen of his PC to do who knows what.

Behind him, Faith noticed a detail she hadn't noticed that morning, namely a framed certificate hanging on the wall.

Squeezing her eyes and straining her sight, she was able to read something written in bold: "CleanIt Enterprise by S. Stevenson."

From the name of that company and the fact that that was the only thing hanging on the wall in the entire room, Faith realized that that had to be the name of the company that old Sam ran on Earth and that gave him the right to the role of Manager in charge of the janitors on board the ship.

"Every time I walk in here, I wonder how the Cleaners Chief's office may be so dirty and messy!" Layton exclaimed, hiding his concern about recent events and speaking to Sam, who had opened the door without first checking who was behind it.

A head popped out of the large LED monitor, which occupied his desk in the middle of a thousand other junk, like small components of some strange cleaning device.

A chubby man, beardless and with a bald spot in the middle of his head, amid gray, untreated, dirty hair, looked at Layton and Faith with his mouth full and a streak of mayonnaise near his mouth.