Answers

She's gone.

The bed space beside me was empty and cold when I woke up this morning. She left a message for me, telling me that she'd gone to Vulcan for research. It was a shock, she didn't even tell me that she would be leaving.

I collect my medicine bundle from a drawer and sit down on the bed. I open it up and spread it out across the covers. I start to meditate, hoping that it will help me clear my mind and provide me with some of the answers I want so badly.

I'm sat in a clearing, in the middle of a familiar forest, but I don't recognize it, not yet. I look around, taking in my surroundings. The trees are wide and branchy, bushes growing around some of them, moss growing up the trunks of others. I can hear a river trickling away nearby.

A small monkey bounds up to the edge of the clearing, where it stops and studies me for a while, its head tilted slightly to one side.

I recognize the monkey as the one Kathryn got to know so well on New Earth, and then I recognize the forest and river. The monkey scuttled closer to me.

"You seek answers?" I nod, unsure of what to say. The monkey reminds me of Kathryn, making my heart beat faster. "Why do you seek answers when you have no questions to ask?"

I finally find my voice. "Because my heart is confused as to what it should do, and I want to know what I should do."

"Listen to your heart, Chakotay, it will find its way out of the confusion and guide you in what you should do. You will find the one you love again, and she will help you get the answers to the questions you seek," I smile as Kathryn's voice calls out my name, my heart fluttering at the sound of her voice.

The forest starts to fade, and I'm back in my apartment, alone. The confusion I felt before has gone, and I know what I should do. I put away my medicine bundle and pull on some clothes, stumbling out the door as I pull on my shoes.