A Visit to the Captain

On the Boston docks, the wharfmaster finds Cain. "Archer!" he calls from his small, weathered-grey office. "Someone here to see you!"

Cain glances up, scowling from the cargo manifest in his hands as he glanced at the chronometer on his wrist.

"Who is it, and can it wait?" He bellows back.

"Uhhh, looks like someone from Haight," the wharfmaster calls back. "Says it's important."

With a sigh, Cain sets the clipboard down on the cargo and heads up to the office, hands slipping into his pockets as he walks.

An older man is waiting for him and, as the wharfmaster noted, he is wearing a Haight enterprises polo shirt, slacks, and a windbreaker. "Captain," he greets, offering a hand. "My name's Gordon Lews. Thanks for meeting with me. Sorry to interrupt your work - I wanted to talk to you in person."

Archer takes it, shaking the hand briskly; his doesn't smile, per se, but nods in a welcoming manner.

"Mr. Lews," he says, "what can I do for you?"

"Drop the job with Lani?" Laws suggests with a wry smile.

"Wouldn't be sporting," he replies smoothly, "any particular reason?"

"Has she told you anything about this?" Gordon asks, tone plaintive rather than challenging. "Anything about why she decided to pause a very successful career, drop her life entirely, rebuild an antique ship and head off into the cosmos?"

"If she had, Mr. Lews, wouldn't be quite right of me to say," Cain replies, "now it sounds like your business might be with her; need me to set up an appointment?"

"Lani and I have known each other most of her life," Lews says. "And, believe me, I've tried to talk to her about this. Didn't work - so I'm trying other avenues. Look, Captain, I know she's a very persuasive woman. She get this...glint in her eye and, suddenly, she can make you think it's snowing in the Mojave desert because she believes it so hard.

"She's also pretty clever, enough to've picked folks for her crew that had a touch of not just desperation, but real, honest need in them. Enough to guarantee they'd be to focused on what the deal could offer them to look at her side of the plan."

He stops, then shakes his head. "God, I'm making her sound so devious. She's not. She just...is so determined to make this happen, she had her bases well-covered. It's become a crusade for her. She's obsessed with it being the answer to her problems. It's not. I'm here because I know it's not. I'm worried about her, about all of you. And the rest of you aren't my business, but...can you at least reconsider this whole thing?"

"I'd much rather a woman on a crusade than people without a direction. Lots of folks go through life, Mr. Lews, with a sail and no rudder - where the wind takes them, off they go."

Cain shrugs a bit, running a hand back over his hair. "You've said it yourself, she's got her bases covered - if she wants to pay a fortune for a two year cruise because she's got a wild hair across her famous butt to light out to the Black? Well, it's her money to spend, isn't it?"

"I agree. And I don't blame you for having a pragmatic view on the situation. You don't know her, and her well-being shouldn't matter much to you. I'm just hoping for an illogical burst of compassion, I guess. Lani tried to kill herself a year ago." He seems grimly ashamed of having revealed something so personal. "It's wrong of me to tell you that, but I'm trying to explain why I think this is bad for her.

"I don't think she should be committed or anything, I just think that being on a ship for two years with people who can't really do her much good is going to make things worse, not better. And I don't want her to end up the way she was last year." He considers. "Uhmmm, not that you and the crew aren't fine people, but you're not...you know, a viable support system for her," He looks around the wharfmaster's office a bit. "No offense," he adds, almost as an afterthought.

Cain just laughs softly, shaking his head. "Let me ask you this, Mr. Lews - you ever been star-side long enough to really appreciate it? Not a jaunt from one meeting to the next, or whatever it is you do, but to actually get out there and see what it's like?"

"No, I haven't," Lews admits. "And I'm not saying that's not what she needs. It's not the ship or the travel that worries me. It's the ship and the travel with a crew she doesn't know. What's going to happen if she breaks down out there? Or what f she decides, after two months, that it's not the dream-come-true she imagined it would be, that it isn't the panacea to all her ills, and abandons you folks?"

"We get by," Cain responds simply, "Now look, I realize your hearts in the right spot, but I think you're really just over-thinking this. We'll get by, she'll get by, and between us all, it'll work out some kinda ways before it's over."

Lews sighs. "Okay. It was a last-ditch effort as it is. And I'm not trying to dig at you, Captain. I know she wouldn't pick an incompetent crew. Just...doing right by my conscience. Maybe you're right - she may know exactly what she's doing, and you might end up having the time of your life out there. I tend to lean toward the cynical side, anyway."

He rises, offering his hand. "Thanks for talking to me, Captain."

Cain smiles a bit, shaking the hand.

"My pleasure," he says, "hopefully it turns out all right for everyone."