Missing Scene: Cogenitor

The door chime rang.

"Come in," said Trip.

T'Pol walked in.

"Have you learned the lesson from the harm you have done?"

"I did no harm."

"Yes, the Captain did not get the technology he had hoped for."

"You notice that when they left it seemed to be okay between Archer and their captain, but they didn't leave any technology," Trip said. "They just said that we would find it someday."

"Nevertheless, what you did was wrong."

"You didn't hear me or didn't listen."

"I certainly did."

"No, I told you that I scanned the Cogenitor and that she was as intelligent as the other two sexes."

"That has no bearing on it."

"But it does. She learned to read in a day and in one more day probably would be reading at university level. She learned and mastered Go in a day and beat me easily. I have not lost a game on board in two years and was Go champion in university. I couldn't beat a Go grandmaster but I could give a master a run for his money. Yet Charles had no problem winning. She could learn and become very good at chess, too. You like logic. Go and chess are two of the most logical games on Earth.

"You interfered where you should not have."

"You know what they called Charles?"

"Charles?"

"Yes, she wanted a name and first chose Trip, but I told her that was a nickname. My real name is Charles. She took that one.

"I expect you were flattered."

"Yes, I was. Anyway, they called her 'it,' didn't even let her have a name. She was a convenience, a tool to help them have a baby. Nothing more. Hell, Porthos is treated better than she was.

"That does not matter."

"But it does matter. T'Pol, she was a being; she had rights, basic rights that all beings have. On Earth, we call them Human rights: the right to have a name, to have an education, to be an equal part of her society, to contribute to that society, to be treated with respect and dignity, to be thought of as a being and not a tool."

"Each society is different."

"But aren't certain rights inherent to a being."

"You do not know...."

"T'Pol, there used to be a group on Earth in my country that were like the Cogenitors. Blacks.

"Blacks?"

"Yes, they were held as slaves. Thought of as lazy, shiftless, stupid and cowardly. Fit only to be slaves who were forced to work for their white owners. They were told that they were no good, that they were meant to be slaves. They were given rags to wear and lived in hovels. Forbidden to marry. Given no education because it was thought that it would be useless, or if they did learn they would become 'uppity.' While they could not legally marry they did anyway, illegally. They had children. Families were broken up. Husbands were sold to one owner, the wife to another and the children to a third. Parents would never see their children again.

Some of the Blacks knew better that they weren't meant to be slaves and tried to escape. Most were caught and their hamstrings were cut. Some managed to escape. They were helped by a brave group of Whites who formed an underground railroad and moved them from one hiding spot to another until they reached Canada. Some of the Blacks got an education, learned to read and write. Some became orators and spoke out. Men like Frederick Douglass.

"That is very interesting but....'

"There was a great war fought and near the end of it Blacks were allowed to enlist in the Union army. They fought bravely and honorably. One of the results of that war was slavery was outlawed. The Blacks thought they were given certain rights. The whites used laws to make certain they didn't get those rights. Still some moved West to build a better life.

"In a war fought between Spain and my country there was a group of Blacks commanded by a man named Pershing," Trip continued. "He said that they were the finest troops he had ever commanded. From then on he was known as 'Black Jack Pershing.'

"But there were still lynchings and white-only signs. Minstrel shows mocked Blacks. Finally they had enough in the mid 20th century. They torched a couple cities to get the Whites' attention and kicked in some doors. You know what? It was discovered that Blacks were the same as everyone else; they were no different."

"You still should not have done what you did."

"There was another group: females."

"Females?"

"Yes, once they were universally considered to be property. They had no rights and were used as pawns in the power game. Worked like animals, were only good for breeding children or warming someone's bed. They were told they could not understand things like mathematics. Even later, when they weren't thought of as property, they were still treated as such. They could not own property or have bank accounts. They were told they couldn't manage those things, that a male had to do it for them. Around that time, in some societies when a female married, all she owned became her husband's property.

"This gave rise to 'fortune hunters': men who looked for heiresses, married them, and when the women came into their inheritance, took it for their own." A book. 'Bel Ami,' was written about such a man. He found a woman, married her, took over her wealth, and spent it on gambling and betting on horses. After he spent it all, he left her and started looking for a new victim.

"Women had to fight for every little bit, especially the right to vote. Some died in that fight. There were two large wars fought on Earth in the 20th century. In the second one, the men were sent to fight it and the women moved into what had been traditionally male work. They proved able to do the work as well as the men. However after the war, it was back to 'children, church and kitchen.' But the women talked to their daughters and they rebelled, kicked down doors. They made changes, fought for new opportunities, a different attitude towards them. They started to get near the centers of power.

"T'Pol you wouldn't want to be a slave, to be told you were worthless. Not to have any rights as a person."

"All very interesting, but how does that help the third sex."

"I opened a door for her. Showed her a life and world that she had a right to."

"You opened a door?"

"Yes, a door that showed she was as good as the other two sexes."

"But she was a third sex that was needed for the other two sexes to have a baby."

"Cogenitors could still do that but also do other things for their people and the other two sexes," Trip said. "But that was not the only door I opened. I opened one for you."

"Me!?"

"Yes, remember the time we had that talk in your quarters about going back to marry Koss, and I said that there was such a thing as personal choice. When I heard you say to Archer that he was Human and had a choice, I knew that you had looked through the door I opened. Not only looked through it, but stepped out of it. T'Pol, if you stay on Enterprise, someday you are going to make a very personal choice that will affect you and maybe others. If you are on board long enough, you will come to think of personal choice as personal freedom and have a right to that. You will not let anyone take it away from you."

Trip thought a minute. "I always wondered what you wrote in that letter you sent to Vulcan. Did you say that you wanted to marry Koss and become a good little Vulcan wife? Or did you say that you would not be returning to Vulcan in the foreseeable future?"

"That is not your concern," said T'Pol. "I do have personal choice."

"Yes, on Vulcan you would choose what robe to wear, what to eat at meals. But the important things that count, you didn't. Who you married was chosen for you. Your place in society as a good Vulcan wife was chosen. Obeying customs and traditions was not your choice but forced on you by Vulcan society.

"You rebelled against the lack of personal choice by joining the High Command intelligence branch, then you left it and went in to the Science Department. You took the assignment on Enterprise and accepted Archer's request to stay on as Science Officer."

Trip smiled. "Tell you what. Chef has made a pecan pie. Let's go to the dining hall and you can make a personal choice, have a slice or not."

"I will go with you to the dining hall because you invited me. It would be rude and illogical for me to decline that invitation."

As they started for the door, Trip said: "T'Pol it wasn't me who drove Charles to suicide. It was the other two sexes. Charles went to them believing that they would accept that she was as intelligent as them and that they would allow her to become an equal in their world. Instead, they slammed that door shut. Charles knew the door would never open again, that she would not be allowed to meet aliens again. Especially Humans. She would go back to being a tool. She did not want that life again so she ended hers.

"What I did, I would do again. I hate the thought of beings held as slaves, called an 'it' and thought of as a tool. Beings denied their basic rights as a Being. T'Pol, doesn't your logic have any empathy in it?"

T'Pol looked at Trip as if she never had seen him before.

"Commander Tucker," she said slowly, "you have more depth than I first thought."

"Come on, T'Pol, that pecan pie is waiting."

Finis