Disclaimer: Oh, great Paramount with your mountain (is that the Matterhorn?) reaching to the sky, I beg your forgiveness as I manipulate the characters to serve my bidding. It is my inferior understanding that you own them all, and that you are superior in every way...blah blah blah....

A fanfic by Kessie (me!).

                                        Mentally, Physically, Spiritually
   
     I was drowning. Mentally, physically, and spritually. A flood of my own thoughts crowded my mind, pushing and shoving to be individually recognized. It was unbearable; there was no time to organize all of those jumbled random words and images. I felt helpless, just like every time Voyager encountered a hostile alien species, intent on destroying us despite attempted amity on my part. Except I'd always known there was another way around the conflict in those instances. For this obstacle, I wasn't so sure...
    
     Trying desperately to ignore my mind's burden, I focused on my physical being. The rushing water that surrounded me seeemed to cruelly grab my body in a liquid fist, and shove me under the surface. Struggling, I made many attempts to reach my head above the water, but the current kept sweeping me downstream. I left each hope of winning one gulp of air behind me at each bend in the river. Eventually, all my attempts began to seem useless. My thoughts were too confusing to be understood, and my body was being drained of energy, too weak to get me oxygen.
    
     Choking at having inhaled more water, I began to lose faith, and let myself slip for a little to clear my mind and give my body some rest. I stopped trying to swim towards the air above my head, and my crashing thoughts began to fade. I was drifting off...mentally, physically...I regained consciousness with a jolt: but what about spiritually? Though appearing pointless, it was better than giving up. I'm known for being stubborn, so why not refuse to let myself die? Strangely enough, my last resort, spirituality, was something I barely believed in. It was worth a try, though.
    
     I began to pray. It wasn't compiled of words or thoughts, as I had imagined prayer to be. Instead, It was a preayer of one remaining emotion: hope. Hope that my crew would get to me in time for rescue. Hope that Voyager would be alright if I didn't make it. Hope that I'd survive to lead my ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. Any hope I could muster. I didn't even know to whom I was praying. I just clung to my last aspiration. But nothing happened. Nothing mentally, physically, or spiritually.
    
     So I did what I hated to do. I gave up. This time, it wasn't just "letting myself slip". My mind became all fuzzy, blanking out one thought at a time, until only one was left, 'This away mission seemed to be a bad idea from the start.'.Then, that too, disappeared. My desperately struggling exhausted body stopped trying to keep me afloat, and let itself be carried by the water.The slight consideration of prayer and hope had been diminished with the rest of my thoughts. I was alone, an empty shell, in my watery tomb.

     Suddenly, as clear as the water that was quickly taking my life, as single sentence screamed through my mind, and froze there.
     "No! Kathryn, I need you!" it rang. Knowing I had not created that thought, I realized who had. I was not alone after all.

     It was that thought burned in my brain, those two arms that had pulled me out of the water into a Starfleet raft, and later that day, that prayer to Akoochimoyathat had been said for me, that had all returned me to life. Mentally, physically, and spiritually. I will never in all eternity be able to thank Chakotay -- my guide, my love, my answer to my one prayer -- enough. Though I could start with a simple kiss and an ivitation to dinner.
                 
                                                                       The End

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