Holography 3

As a Reminder and a Promise

by

Pat Foley

Chapter 10

Back at her palace, T'Pau summoned her chief attendant. "T'Lean."

"Matriarch."

"There are some tasks I would have you do before the coming Council session. Tasks particularly fitting for you."

Hope surged within T'Lean. "Of course." She'd been excessively careful to redeem herself in T'Pau's eyes, to stay in her good graces. T'Pau had forgiven, nearly forgotten, her slip from months past. The matriarch had come to regard it as a true slip, an unfortunate occurrence during a time when everyone had been emotional and tempers had been flaring.

And T'Lean had been well aware that Sarek was recovering. And that he would need a wife. And as T'Pau forgot her minor slip in the face of such major issues, her hopes had not died either.

The Matriarch spoke often of Amanda. Her weekly visits to the chattel made that inevitable. Time and time again, she had ordered T'Lean to assemble the guard to take her to visit her honored daughter. Honored Daughter. In this, T'Lean felt the old woman was doddering. Not that she showed sign of it in any other aspect of her life, but T'Pau's relief that her son still lived had clearly turned her head.

For the human was chattel. No chattel could be an honored daughter. She understood Matriarch had a …fondness…for the human who had spared her son's life by not challenging. For Sarek was a proud man and a brave one, but he would have been no match for one of the hulking professional challengers, who trained daily in combat. Xtmprszqzntwlfb were great men and of an ancient warrior line, but their qualities were of leadership, intelligence and strength of will, not sheer animal hulk. T'Lean was even willing to acknowledge that though the human's decision not to challenge had been foolhardy, it did display a loyalty deserving of some regard.

In her rival's walled away absence, she had come to believe that the human was rather like a sehlat in that respect. Lacking in intelligence and foresight, and over emotional. But such loyalty even in an animal could be touching. And Sarek had always had a fondness for …pets, particularly those with sehlat-like qualities. He had been young when he had first taken the human. Far from home. And no doubt the human had some …animal like charms. He could be forgiven for a lack of sophistication in his first choice. T'Lean was willing to grant herself that perhaps there was no real harm in his chattel. T'Lean would even consider being…kind…to the stupid little beast, provided she did not forget her station. Who could fail to be kind to a well trained pet? Provided she kept to her station, low as it was.

In the months that Amanda had been reduced to chattel status, T'Lean had come to some sort of peace in her own mind with her, had ceased to regard her as a rival. Could not regard her as such. For though the Matriarch touched much on honor in referring to her, honor was an abstract concept in her case. She was only chattel. Chattel had no inherent honor. Most – all - chattel became chattel by challenging, and either having their husbands win the challenge or in choosing a champion who did not free them after the combat – in either case making a foolish choice in regards to the selected challenger. While the law allowed for a wife to challenge as her only means of freeing herself from an undesired marriage, social customs did not approve of such. But such divorce challenges were sealed, attended only by the parties involved. If the husband lost, he was considered merely a casualty of Pon Far. Men did occasionally die in the Time, even as women sometimes did as a consequence of it. It was rare, but it happened. It even had a euphemism in the press, was reported as an "unspecified fever." So a female who challenged, and was released by her challenger, returned to society unmarked by her action – at least officially - she bore no shame, no scandal. But if her champion lost, or if her challenger refused to release her and she remained chattel, that was entirely different. Chattel were considered treacherous, murderous outcasts, fit only for the most demeaning of existences. Chattel were never seen, never heard from again. When they died, they went unnoticed, unmourned. Essentially they died on becoming chattel, which in itself was a death, a death of all past life, past status.

It was true, to choose chattel status to heal vrie was supposedly an honor of legend, but that was all it was, an ancient legend. Who knew a legend? Or spoke to one, or spoke of them, or dealt with them? The reality of a chattel's truly humbled existence was far more factual than some archaic myth of sacrificial legend.

T'Lean had thought much herself on challenge. She had planned carefully for it, knowing she would be chattel, however briefly, afterward. She, who had considered it much, would not be so foolish as to think it had any real honor under any circumstance – or be so trusting as to risk even five minutes in that state, to one whom she might choose as champion, without sufficient leverage as to gain freedom. She had already put aside much wealth in trust for the challenger she would select – who would receive it only upon releasing her to freedom. And had hired the best legal councilors to carefully draft the trust document. She had no qualms about her anticipated future challenge. Her husband was old, his presumed death in Pon Far would be regarded as quite natural. Her challenge and divorce would be sealed, unnoticed and unremarked. She had indeed chosen well, quite deliberately so, in that respect. Her status on divorce would be undiminished from what it was before.

For there was honor outside of the chattel state, but only shame and subservience within it. No matter what tales of history T'Pau dwelt on. And the human had been months in her chattel state. No modern Vulcan woman had ever been released from chattel state after more than a few minutes. One was either released immediately by a champion, or one stayed chattel, outcast, property, slave. Forever disappearing from honorable society. It was the gamble one took when one challenged. There had to be some risk, in fairness to the male's risk of his life. And if one lost, if the champion died or proved false and did not release as promised, then the challenging wife disappeared, too. As if dead, or at least, forever removed from society. As Amanda had disappeared.

She considered Amanda gone as if dead. No one came back from the dead. No one ever returned from chattel status. It simply never happened. At least, outside of legend. And no human was worthy of a Vulcan legend. She was gone.

T'Lean had come to realize and relish the truth. The human still lived. Sarek had not killed her. But she lived as chattel, and chattel she would forever remain.

And as Sarek survived and even thrived, coming back to his old manner, the light of sanity now present in him, she had come to hope again. She had been intended for Sarek, and his choice of the human had been disconcerting, but she had never expected it to last. T'Pau had not expected it to last. She had known that someday the human would leave, or die, or otherwise fail Sarek. And she would be there, as had been intended from the first. It was her place. When she herself had been required to marry, she'd married an older widower who could be easily defeated in challenge. She'd planned all her life for this. It was difficult not to return to those plans on seeing the human so removed from decent society, to watch Sarek and not think that her place might still be as his wife. He would need a wife. To her eyes, he had recovered. He kept the human as chattel still. But that was fitting.

T'Lean had stayed in her position, sought to redeem herself with T'Pau, only for this. To stay close inside clan circles, so that when Sarek recovered fully, and sought a true wife, he would know who had been loyal all this time. The true loyalty of a Vulcan woman. Animal-like devotion might be touching but she could not believe a Vulcan could wish it in a wife. Not a silly sehlat like human animal who ought to be kenneled in the garden with the other animals rather than sleeping in her master's bed.

So she hoped and her hope surged upward. Of course, with the upcoming Council opening, Sarek would think of a wife. Must think of a wife, for it was traditional that the clan leaders be present. For too long Sarek had stood alone with T'Pau at the yearly ceremony, no wife at his side. It was unsuitable, and with the return of his sanity, he must see that. But then that human had been wife, unrecognized as such in the clan, but wife. She knew T'Pau had hated that, hated the human for it. But the human was wife no longer. Perhaps Sarek had come to realize himself with the return of his sanity, perhaps the human's very act had made him realize that she could be no more than a chattel. Perhaps he had recovered all his sanity on that issue as well. It was long past time he had.

So T'Lean hoped. And T'Pau's next words seem to confirm it.

"I wish you to go to the Vaults, to select a suitable gown for the Council opening."

"Yes, Matriarch," she said, outwardly calm, inwardly exulting.

"We must see to ornaments as well." T'Pau said. "I think in this case T'Ianye's, both gown and jewels, would be most suitable."

"Yes, most suitable, for the wife of the clan leader," T'Lean agreed, feeling as if her heart would burst for joy. At last, at last. And to wear the gown she had long coveted, long planned for. Finally, her dreams, her ambitions, her plans, all fulfilled.

"I thought you would be a good choice for these duties." T'Pau grimaced slightly. "My son cares little for such formalities. He would never see to it properly."

"He has many other duties," T'Lean said. "Leave all the preparations to me, Matriarch." She savored the title, thinking only too soon how she would relinquish it, to Mother.

"Yes, and T'Amanda knows nothing of them, and is otherwise tasked. She is teaching overmuch, when it would be prudent to grant time to allow her to readjust to her release."

"Release." T'Lean repeated the word, as if saying it could bring meaning to it. "She has …she has been released?"

T'Pau gave her an impatient look. "You are inattentive, T'Lean. She could hardly be teaching, otherwise."

'I beg forgiveness, Matriarch," T'Lean whispered.

"I think T'Ianye's gown and jewels will do well. My Honored Daughter is small, but the dress should fit well enough, and they will give her stature. Not that she requires such; her honor gives her that alone."

T'Lean did not hear the old women almost prattle on, her own mind was numb. From exultation to ashes. T'Ianye's gown and jewels. The precious clan jewels of the wife of Surak. Taken out only for state occasions. The last had been for T'Pau's own wedding. And never worn since. The dress T'Lean had planned to wear at her own now never to be wedding, given to …to an animal! T'Lean bowed her head trying to force acceptance, but she could not stop herself from interrupting T'Pau, from saying the words. "Matriarch, would you trust such…precious clan artifacts…to a human?"

T'Pau gazed at her imperiously, in astonishment. "Thy concern for the clan artifacts is appropriate. It is why I have chosen you to handle this task. As for trusting T'Amanda also - I have trusted her with my son's life. There is no higher trust."

"Yes, Matriarch," she whispered. Seeing all her dreams in ashes.

"See to it at once." T'Pau ordered.

To be continued...