2.10 alliances

Another attack by one of the many Kaizon sects leaves Voyager badly damaged and a third crewmember dead. Some of the crew, including Chakotay, would like Janeway to abandon her devotion to Star Fleet regulations and form an alliance with some of the Kaizon sects, in order to protect Voyager and promote stability in the region. Against her better judgement, Janeway agrees to pursue this option, but her meeting with Seska and Maj Cullough falls apart when the Maj insists on a crew exchange. Meanwhile, Neelix, who has been sent to talk to a Kaizon ‘friend’ of his on a nearby planet, is captured upon arrival and imprisoned with people from a race called the Trabe. The Trabe originally shared a home world with the Kaizon and kept them poor and segregated (shades of South Africa) until the Kaizon revolted. It happened 30 years ago, but the Kaizon still harbor bad feelings and attack the Trabe at every opportunity, refusing to allow them to settle anywhere, and keeping them nomadic. Convinced that the Trabe leader wants peace and has learned from their past, Janeway agrees to an alliance. Mabis, the Trabe leader, asks that they invite the Maj’s of all the Kaizon sects to a meeting to forge a peace plan. However, Mabis’ real agenda is to assassinate all the Maj’s and decimate the Kaizon. The plan is foiled by phaser fire from Voyager, and Janeway kicks Mabis off the ship. In the final scene, Janeway sums up the recent events and states her allegiance to the rules of the Federation, saying that in a rule-less area of space such as this, the principles of the Federation are the best allies they could have.

Problems exist, especially with Mabis’ ineptness at assassination. Perhaps it was not a good idea to try to kill the Kaizons by sending a ship to hover outside the window and blast in; it would have been better to have a team of assassins enter and kill using phasers – or to use a bomb.