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SUMMARY: Hoping to strengthen Voyager's strategic position in the Quadrant, Janeway reluctantly seeks an alliance with the Kazon.
Voyager under Kazon attack | A series of Kazon assaults on Voyager badly damage the ship | 
Voyager under Kazon attack |
Chakotay suggests to Janeway that Starfleet principles work well in the Alpha Quadrant and that she should start thinking like a Maquis.
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| Him: "Starfleet works well in the Alpha Quadrant but out here maybe we should be thinking more like the Maquis. The Maquis had to survive on their own." |
Immediately after the memorial service for Crewman Bendera, killed during the latest Kazon attack, Crewman Hogan publicly challenges Janeway's strategy of denying Federation technology to the Kazon. Later Chakotay talks privately with Janeway, and urges her to form an alliance with at least one of the Kazon factions. She reluctantly agrees only when Tuvok convinces her that such an arrangement could bring stability to the Quadrant.
Seska, and Culluh the First Maje of the Kazon-Nistrim | Janeway and Tuvok meet with Culluh and Seska to discuss a possible alliance between Voyager and the Kazon-Nistrim: Voyager would pledge support for Nistrim ships and outposts but would not provide technology and weaponry. But Culluh insists also on an exchange of crew, saying that he refuses to allow a woman to dictate (all the terms of) the alliance. Janeway, a woman, gives in to her mistrust and dislike of him and cancels any prospect of an alliance. |
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| Culluh insists on an exchange of crews; Culluh shouts at Seska. |
Neelix's shuttlecraft over Sobras | Meanwhile, Neelix travels to the planet Sobras in a shuttlecraft and visits a Kazon-Pommar contact of his to ask him to sound his First Maje about the feasibility of an alliance. He is arrested by Kazon-Pommar soldiers for no apparent reason and incarcerated with a group of Trabe. The last remaining member of the Trabe governing council, Mabus, befriends Neelix and assures him that a rescue by fellow-Trabe is imminent. |
Mabus |
Mabus, Neelix and the Trabe escape captivity |
When Voyager finds Neelix not at the rendezvous point they decide to wait for him for two hours. During this time Hogan asks Torres to clarify rumours about the Kazon. She tells him Janeway's talks with Culluh collapsed pretty quickly. She refuses Hogan's suggestion that she, Torres, talk with Seska. Michael Jonas overhears the conversation, which sets him to thinking.
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| Jonas overhears the conversation between Hogan and Torres |
Voyager sets course for Sobras to retrieve Neelix but en route long-range sensors detect an armada of Kazon ships closing in on their position. Apprehension turns to relief when the armada contacts them and it turns out that Neelix is aboard one of them and he introduces them to Mabus and the Trabe. It turns out that they are not Kazon ships but Trabe ships, for the Kazon use stolen Trabe ships and technology.
 | Over dinner on Voyager, Mabus explains to Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok and Neelix that the Trabe once held the Kazon as slaves, in isolation, until the Kazon rose up against them thirty years ago. Since then, the Trabe have been in exile. Whenever the Trabe try to settle on a new homeworld the Kazon take revenge by preventing them. Despite the bad blood between Trabe and Kazon forces, Janeway decides to propose to Mabus that Voyager and the Trabe form an alliance. |
Jonas secretly contacts the Kazon-Nistrim and asks to speak to Seska. His contact, the Nistrim officer Rettick, says he will pass the message to Seska and Jonas should contact them again.
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| Jonas in secret conversation with Rettick |
 | Mabus not only agrees to the proposed alliance with Voyager but suggests a further step - a peace conference with the Kazon to try and bring peace and stability to the Quadrant. Janeway agrees and the First Majes of the Kazon Order are invited to a peace conference on Sobras. |
Culluh is unwilling to attend the conference, seeing it as humiliation, until Seska convinces him that he should attend in order to assess the mood of the Majes and the strength of the Trabe force. When he orders her to watch her tone of voice with him, she calls his bluff, telling him she doubts he would harm her as she carries his unborn child, a child she had previously (in [#27 Maneuvers]) told Chakotay was his. To calm the Maje, she reminds him that they have a secret contact aboard Voyager. She persuades him he can be a hero and exploit the conference to unite the warring Kazon factions as a step toward his destroying the Trabe and seizing Voyager.
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| Seska persuades Culluh to follow her advice |
Neelix, Janeway, Chakotay and Tuvok discuss Neelix's disturbing news which he received from his contact on Sobras, which is that someone wants to sabotage the peace conference. That someone is probably another Maje, wanting to use the opportunity to assassinate his rivals. Tuvok warns that in that case the conspirator will try to leave the room at the time of the assassination attempt. Accordingly, Janeway, Neelix and Tuvok proceed with caution to the conference room on Sobras. There they and Mabus welcome five Majes.
foreground: Culluh |
the First Majes of the Kazon factions the Mostral, Hobii and Oglamar |
| the peace conference |
At the conference, no real progress toward peace is made. Unexpectedly Mabus asks for a short recess, insisting that Janeway, Neelix and Tuvok leave with him to discuss something. Janeway's suspicion of Mabus proves correct when the room shakes and a Trabe ship appears at the window.
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| Mabus desperately requests Janeway, Neelix and Tuvok leave to discuss something with him; Janeway realises Mabus is the would-be assassin. |
As the Voyager crewmembers and Mabus transport to Voyager, the Trabe ship opens fire. Warned just in time by Janeway, the Majes have dived for cover and are unharmed. Voyager fires photon torpedoes at the Trabe ship and drives it away.
the Trabe ship fires into the conference room |
the Trabe ship, viewed from outside the building |
Janeway, appalled by Mabus' murderous deceit, ends the alliance and orders him off Voyager.
Janeway: "You planned this whole thing and used our
goodwill to make sure you were successful." |
Mabus is transported back to his ship |
 | This leaves the Voyager crew more vulnerable than ever, but Janeway informs her senior staff that, as far as she is concerned, the principles and ideals of Starfleet are their best allies. |
 | | CHAKOTAY TO JANEWAY: Starfleet works well in the Alpha Quadrant, but out here... Maybe we should be thinking more like the Maquis. The Maquis had to survive on their own. We were up against insurmountable odds. We had to create our own opportunities for success because nobody was willing to help us. Sound like anybody you know? |
| | JANEWAY TO SENIOR STAFF: In a part of space where there are few rules, it's more important than ever that we hold fast to our own. In a region where shifting allegiances are commonplace, we have to have something stable to rely on, and we do - the principles and ideals of the Federation. As far as I'm concerned, those are the best allies we could have. |
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