Janeway's alliance with the Kazon splits her crew.
After a Kazon attack kills the popular former Maquis crewman Kurt Bendera, Chakotay urges Janeway to bend Starfleet principles and seek an alliance with one or more Kazon sects. Talks with Maje Culluh and Seska collapse, while Neelix, captured while trying to approach another sect, meets the Trabe, a people who once oppressed the Kazon before being overthrown by them.
Janeway arranges a peace conference to bring the Trabe and the Kazon sects together, but the Trabe leader Mabus uses it as cover for an attack meant to kill the assembled Kazon leaders. Janeway warns the Kazon and escapes, but Voyager is left more isolated than before, and she resolves to hold to her Federation ideals.