“Maneuvers” is episode eleven of season two of Star Trek: Voyager.
Chakotay and B’Elanna are heading to the bridge, having been interrupted during a game. Chakotay is insisting he had B’Elanna where he wanted her – even though he was losing 19-7. He claims he was lulling her into a false sense of security. Win a couple of points and she’d tense up. She retorts that she doesn’t tense up, and he tells her it’s just a game of hoverball.
Voyager has received a transmission coming from a beacon. They’ve been hailed by someone using a Federation signal. Tom, to the question as to how could someone in the Delta Quadrant be using such, suggests that there could be a Starfleet probe looking for them. According to Tuvok, the code wasn’t scheduled to come into use until a month after they left. Captain Janeway orders that a course be set to the beacon.
The beacon is inside an ionised hydrogen cloud that is interfering with their sensors. Chakotay doesn’t want to bring it on board until they know what they are dealing with and the captain agrees. She doesn’t want to fly in after it either, so tells Tuvok to use the tractor beam.
Then a Kazon raider appears from inside the cloud and attacks. Their warp engines are disabled before they can leave and Tuvok reports that an opening is forming in the starboard shield. Somehow, the Kazon are continuously matching their weapon to the shield frequencies. Chakotay says it’s as if the Kazon know Voyager‘s access codes. Another, smaller, vessel emerges from the cloud, heading for the opening in the shield. It rams the ship, breaching the hull, and there is an intruder alert.
Kazon are in cargo bay 2 and the shuttle embedded in the hull is destabilising the warp field. Power has also been rerouted to Transporter Room 2. Two Kazon are there, stealing something, and they beam off. Tuvok reports that they stole a transporter module, and they can’t beam it back because they’ve lost transporter power.
The captain orders that a tractor beam be locked onto the Kazon vessel to stop it from leaving. The ship hails them and First Maje Culluh of the Nistron greets them. To the statement that he will never be able to integrate what he stole into his systems, he replies that he has had help updating his technology. And a Cardassian woman – Seska, who fled in “State of Flux” after it was discovered she was communicating with the Kazon – comes into view. She in the process of restoring her Cardassian physiology. And she knew they would try to stop; her with a tractor beam. Which gets neutralised and the Kazon ship flees. Did no-one change whatever codes Seska might have compromised before she left?
The shuttle that embedded itself into Voyager had been modified to puncture the hull. Neelix has never seen the Kazon do anything like this before. Tuvok states that, until now, the Kazon have never had someone familiar with Maquis, Cardassian and Federation procedures giving them advice. Janeway wants to recover the stole technology; Neelix asks if that’s a good idea. The captain tells him it is unacceptable for Federation technology to be on the loose. Even a small component, as it could cause vast problems. She asks what would happen if the other Kazon sects find out what the Nistron have, and Neelix agrees that it would alter the balance of power in the whole quadrant.
B’Elanna is planning to beam the component back, but it will probably be shielded. So, Chakotay suggests using one of Seska’s own tricks against her. She thinks Chakotay is taking the whole matter a bit personally. Seska fooled them all. Even if it does suggest that Chakotay has lousy taste in women. She advises Chakotay not to let Seska get to him.
Culluh is meeting with another sect, trying to sell them on taking Voyager together. This does not go well. It takes Seska to stop the meeting turning into bloodshed. On Voyager, Tom detects a gap in the warp trail, and some floating debris. The bodies of the two Kazon that Culluh was arguing with. The Doctor says they were beamed into space whilst still alive. Neelix does not think it was an accident, given that they were of a different sect. That is probably true. Seska suggests to Culluh that they try weaker sects as allies, but oversteps her bounds a bit whilst doing so.
Captain Janeway is not exactly happy about various breaches in security, and wants Tuvok to give her a report. By tomorrow. She’s right to be a bit narked. Chakotay is still taking things rather personally, and B’Elanna ends up having to explain his actions to the captain.