Disclaimer for all chapters: Star Trek and Star Trek: Voyager belong Gene Roddenberry and all its rightful owners, and that's not me. All OCs belong to me, along with some of the plot.

The room pulsed with heat and humidity. Buttons and switches on control panels blinked and beeped. There was barely enough light to make out the features of the room.

An alien was facing the far wall. He turned to retrieve something from an island console in the center of the room. His skin was deep blue, and tattoos framed his eyes. The tattoos were glowing. Subtle ridges swept outward from his nose along his cheeks, much like the veins of a leaf.

He turned back to the far wall, and a large screen lit up. A woman's face appeared on it, her features smiling. She looked human, but her ears were pointed like an elf's. Her hair was cropped but stylish and her eyes twinkled in merriment.

Another alien joined the first. "Is she the one?" he hissed.

"Yes," the first responded. "Calculations show she will die within the week. She will be perfect."

"Let us begin our preparations, then," ordered the second.

The room dissolved like rain down a glass panel, into darkness. The only sound was the hissing laughter of the strange aliens.

Kes woke from her nightmare, sweating.

…

"Doctor?"

The EMH stopped humming and looked up from his work. "Yes?"

Kes sighed. "I had the strangest dream last night. Can you tell me what you think about it?"

"Sure," the Doctor said, smiling. "What strange night visions did we experience last night, hmm?"

Kes smiled back, but sobered as she described her dream. The Doctor stopped working to concentrate more fully on the dream and Kes' reaction to it.

"It was my face on the screen, Doctor. They said….they said I would die within the week. But it was odd that it was my face when I had short hair. They said they had to make preparations for my death. Then everything dissolved and I woke up." She looked into her mentor's eyes. "It felt so real, like I was there in the humid, dark room with them. It felt…almost like a premonition."

She turned away. "But what do I know, it was probably nothing."

The Doctor frowned and pulled out a medical tricorder and scanned her head. "Have you had dreams like this before?"

"No, never."

"Hmm…." He continued scanning and his frown deepened. "I'm reading increased serotonin levels, 40% above normal." He closed the scanner. "Kes…."

"What does this mean, Doctor?"

He looked at her. "It means…that dream just might be a vision. You may die in the next week."