Landing

"Remeber William, we're here for work, not play" Hook snarled "No more of your alien escapades, eh?"
The sound of a small ship hurtling through orbit was deafening, so William would pretend like he hadn't heard that. The galaxy was getting too old for racists like Hook. If he kept up this constant harassment, it would soon come to blows. Eventually the sound eased, and the small escort ship slithered into the dark side of Loron.
"Listen" Ellen began, seeking yet another opportune leadership moment " We're here for one thing. Get what we need, leave. Why are we all staying at different unknown places? Hook?"
"Because we don't want anyone to be able to find us all together."
"And?"
He groaned "And if one of us is captured, we can't confess where the others are"
"That's right. We're not playing around guys. This is serious. We mess up here, we die here. Loron is an eternally dark place where dark people do dark things. We're small fish to this guy, he will not hesitate to kill us."
William cranked his neck to look out his view port, hearing but not comprehending Ellen's words. The world below was alight with darkness. Neon lights flashed and glowed in the distance. His kind of place. Around him words ceased to form any kind of contiguity and transformed themselves into an annoying drone. He had to interrupt.
"Okay we get it, we can't mess up. We won't".
Ellen stared at him, dumbfounded.
“I was telling Hook about Reever last night on the main ship”. Damnit.
“I know, i'm just saying... we've got this."
She briefly scanned his face with sometimes beautiful eyes and detected a bluff. Shrinking back into her pilots seat she radioed the command tower asking for permission to land.
“Blah blah blah, granted. “
"One last thing, if you aren't at the port this time tomorrow, I leave without you" She was looking at William now, to show Hook she wasn't playing favorites. They both nodded, as their thoughts teetered on the edge of darkness and light, and struggled to lean towards any one direction. They were silent the rest of the way, and as the cargo door slid open behind them, a rank smell drifted in. It wasn't the smell of alien cuisine, ship oil, exposed fumes, or sewage, it wasn't the smell of a new medical invention or cleaning supplies, it wasn't even the smell of three cramped mercenaries, getting out of a shuttle with no idea of what they were getting themselves into, no, it was the smell of murder, and it was thick tonight. The port was crawling with lowlives, and somewhere, not too far away, three shots rang out like a bell. Some seedy politician was appraching them to give a formal greeting and express how glad he was to see them, because, as everyone knows, Politicians love meeting nobodies at crowded space ports in the wee hours of the night.
"Please tell me he's not for us" Ellen whined
"So much for covert" William sighed
Hook smiled, cracking open a fresh drink "Here's to a safe stay"