Her short night rest was brutally interrupted when suddenly her phone rang. Ellen had always been a fan of adjusting your ringtones to the person who's calling, and this time it was her in command boss: Alexai. With a grunt and a deep sigh she cast aside her thin fleece blanket and took a quick glance into her bedroom. It was still dark out and her clothes she had been wearing a few hours back were scattered across the floor. Pushing herself up onto her bed, Ellen grabbed her phone and pressed the device against her ear. It automatically opened up the line. "Ellen?" "Speaking." Her voice sounded a little hoarse which probably told Alexai she had just woken up. She softly coughed whilst pulling her blanket back over her legs to get slightly comfy again. "A new ship has arrived in the harbour. I need you and Aiden to go check it out so the shipment doesn't get discovered." Aiden had left the ship at the docking station as they always did after a long collecting day. So, when they got to work the day after, they just had to unload, clean out the ship from any residues they might have missed and prepare for the next collecting journey. It saved some time and energy in the long run if you had a mine to clear our. "On it." Ellen mumbled and as soon as she heard the disconnecting tone, her phone dropped to the floor. As quickly as she got up, she dropped herself onto her pillow again and pulled her blanket closer. "Just give me 5 more minutes.." She thought to herself.
It seemed like Aiden really did have somewhere to go when she arrived at the harbour: he was still wearing his original working clothing and had some serious dark circles underneath his eyes. He didn't say much when he spotted her and neither did she. It seemed like Alexai had phoned both of them. When Ellen found a pair of clean jeans and a sloppy pullover the old kitchen timer displayed it was about 5 in the morning. This meant she has had about 4 solid hours of sleep. Aiden had no sleep at all, so whoever thought of docking in Lilith at this time of the day, Ellen hoped it was someone who wouldn't cause any trouble.
As expected, the harbour was completely silent and there was not a soul to be spotted. Aiden had taken the west wing of the building and so Ellen took the east side. It was dark and quite cold. There was this soft scattering sound from the wind playing with the loose antennas of several space ships. Whilst walking past the docking stations, Ellen every time time took a step inside to check if someone was unloading or securing their ship. Secretly she hoped Aiden would've already found the traveler, helped them on their way to the exit, and they could leave peacefully. But something was off: it has been 20 minutes since Alexai called her and there was no way in hell the traveler had already safely secured their ship. There were so many cables to hook up onto to keep the generator running. "Except if they have their OWN fully functioning generator, but they'd have to be loaded.." Ellen thought to herself.
Another docking station, empty.
Another.
Another.
It started to seem like a futile job and Ellen started to relax a little bit more. If there was anyone here she would've heard Aiden by now. The last two stations were nearing. "Aiden, I don't think we-" Her eyes suddenly picked up a shadow in the previous docking station. Ellen slowly reached for her lazergun tucked in the back of her jeans and took a few steps forward. "Registration please!" She said loudly and clear. There was no response and to Ellen, there clearly was another human in her presence. "Hello?" She tried again, this time whilst charging her gun.