State of Flux ( episode ) An unknown " Voyager " crew member secretly sends information to the Kazon . Summary . Teaser . While Commander Chakotay and an away team , including Carey and Neelix , are on a scouting expedition on an alien planet , Lieutenant Tom Paris , onboard the , notices something from his station that may be a cloaked ship . Tuvok reveals it is in fact a ship using some kind of masking circuitry unfamiliar to him . He suggests using a polaron burst ; when Captain Janeway gives him the go - ahead , the burst reveals the outline of a Kazon raider , the specifications of which conform to the Kazon - Nistrim sect . Janeway immediately orders the away team back to the ship . On the surface , Chakotay assembles the away team , but there is no sign of Seska . He has the rest of the team beam back aboard " Voyager " while he looks for her with a tricorder in hand in some nearby caves . He finds her picking mushroom s so she can teach Neelix how to make Chakotay ' s favorite soup . As they move to leave the cave , they are surprised by a pair of Kazon soldiers . Chakotay is injured in the firefight , and Seska helps him out of the cave to the transport site . Act One . Seska visits Chakotay ' s quarters bringing him mushroom soup . They savor it together as she describes how Neelix wanted to make the soup with leola root , and after an altercation she in a ' Maquis operation ' with stole the mushroom s from the kitchen to make mushroom soup for Chakotay , while Neelix was dealing with a convenient case of homesickness that arose with several other Maquis officers . Chakotay , visibly upset at her raiding the kitchen and stealing food , revokes everyone ' s replicator ration s for two day s including his own . He also threatens to throw Seska and her co - conspirators in the brig , next time . As Seska leaves , Janeway calls the senior staff to the bridge . " Voyager " receives a distress call from a ship identical to the one seen at the previous planet , and while the call appears to be genuine based on sensor readings , Neelix advises caution ; the ship hails from the Kazon - Nistrim , one of the most violent sects in the Kazon Collective . With no indications of other Kazon ships in the vicinity , Janeway plots a course to intercept the ship . When an away team beams aboard the Kazon ship , they find several bodies on the bridge , all dead from what appears to be a kind of subatomic manipulation that has melded them with pieces of metal . They detect nucleonic radiation emanating from an area of the bridge , contained automatically via force field s . One survivor is among the Kazon crew , so he is beamed aboard " Voyager " to be treated in sickbay , but the away team finds something strange in the vicinity of the radiation : neosorium , a composite unique to Federation technology . Back aboard , The Doctor finds the Kazon ' s cells have been fundamentally altered and he doesn ' t know if he can save him . As they head to the bridge , Chakotay and Tuvok tell Janeway of the possible Federation technology aboard the Kazon ship . Tuvok notes three possibilities : either it is not Federation but something similar , another Starfleet ship had been pulled into the Delta Quadrant or ( the most likely explanation ) someone from the crew handed the technology over . Janeway immediately halts the turbolift , finding the idea that someone on " Voyager " might have given technology to the Kazon very disturbing . Tuvok suggests that Seska might have been responsible since she was found near the Kazon on the planet , but Chakotay points out he found her hiding from them . Janeway tells them that retrieving the console is now top priority and resumes the turbolift . Act Two . The staff meets in engineering , where B ' Elanna Torres brainstorms possible ways to retrieve the console . Although Seska thinks she can use a ' subspace bubble ' to walk through the force field and protect her from the radiation , Torres thinks it is too risky and instead opts for Carey ' s suggestion to push the force field and the radiation so it no longer intersects with the console . The plan will take until the next day , so they begin to get to work ; however , when Torres assigns jobs to the engineering crew , Chakotay claims that he does not want Seska on the engineering team but on the bridge instead . Seska is upset at Chakotay ' s decision to pull her away from the engineering team , but Chakotay assures her in a corridor that he is only trying to protect her ; visiting sickbay , she asks The Doctor to inform her immediately if their Kazon guest wakes up , as he is the only one who can prove her innocence . While she is there , Kes notes that Seska never got around to giving a blood sample . Seska tells Kes that her blood cannot be used for transfusion due to a childhood disease and she was warned never to donate . The Doctor notes that is all the more reason it should be on file , however Seska simply promises to give a sample later before leaving . Later , Seska tries to retrieve the console herself by transporting over to the damaged Kazon ship without authorization and using her subspace bubble . On the bridge , Chakotay orders her back but she refuses and Tuvok points out she may have gone over to destroy evidence that could implicate her . As Chakotay argues back that it is a misguided attempt by Seska to prove herself , the Bajoran is suddenly heard screaming . She is beamed to sickbay , where she is found to be burned but it is easily treatable . Act Three . Janeway calls Carey into her ready room , where Tuvok and Chakotay are waiting . They interrogate him about any personal communications he might have had with the Kazon since " Voyager " was stranded in the Delta Quadrant pointing out he was separated from the away team on the planet for over an hour and may be bitter over Lieutenant Torres being promoted to chief engineer over him . Carey vehemently denies all of the accusations and although he does mention Seska ' s name , he stops short of implicating her directly . Janeway has Carey confined to quarters for the rest of the investigation . After he ' s gone , the three discuss if Carey may actually have betrayed the crew to the Kazon ; while he indeed has a motive and had the opportunity to do so , he also has a distinguished Starfleet career while Seska spent two years as an enemy of the Federation . Chakotay however still refuses to accept this , pointing out that he was a Maquis too . When another Kazon ship arrives , the First Maje Culluh of the Kazon - Nistrim introduces himself . Like all Kazon , he is aggressive , but he is intent on protecting Kazon property . Janeway refuses to leave the ship alone until she has the console , using her superior technology as the stick . Culluh agrees to settle for visiting the still - unconscious survivor of the accident . Culluh and his bodyguard arrive in sickbay , where The Doctor explains about the accident and the nucleonic radiation from the console . The Kazon want to be left alone with the man , so Janeway talks to The Doctor in private , not eager to release their patient into Kazon hands . Janeway prepares to inform the Kazon of her intentions when Culluh ' s bodyguard takes out a small needle . Tuvok attempts to intervene , but he injects a neurotoxin into the patient ' s blood , killing him instantly . Disgusted , Janeway orders Culluh and the bodyguard off her ship . Once the Kazon are gone , Kes and The Doctor have important news for Janeway : according to Seska ' s blood screening , she is not Bajoran but Cardassian . Act Four . Chakotay is informed of The Doctor ' s analysis and is incredulous and wants to be the one to question her . Janeway decides to hold off until the console is retrieved . As an away team is preparing to beam over to the vessel to take back the console , the other Kazon ship threatens war if anything is removed . Janeway threatens a harsh tactical response if they interfere , and the Kazon back down . An away team including Torres manages to successfully beam the console , decontaminate it , and begin analysis in Engineering . Torres identifies the console as a food replicator , however it lacked sufficient shielding to prevent nucleonic radiation from leaking and causing a cascade . It is also identified that the components in the console contain bio - neural circuitry , proving that those components could only have originated from " Voyager " . Chakotay confronts Seska in sickbay with the evidence of the food replicator components and the diagnosis that she is believed to actually be Cardassian . Seska indicates that the reason for this is that she had suffered from Orkett ' s disease as a child and received a bone marrow transplant from a Cardassian woman named Kattell to survive . Chakotay informs her that an extensive search of security logs is currently underway to identify the traitor . Once Chakotay leaves sickbay , Tuvok informs him outside the room that Carey has also been told about the pending search and that the trap is now ready to catch the culprit . Act Five . Chakotay and Tuvok play gin in at a console engineering while monitoring the activity of the manifest logs . Upon detecting changes , they find that Seska ' s security codes are being clumsily planted into the logs , seemingly implicating Carey who would be trying to frame her . Chakotay enters sickbay to tell Seska what they ' ve found and that they now know for certain who gave the technology to the Kazon . . . her . Seska denies everything , complaining that she doesn ' t know what evidence they think they found but Chakotay replies that actually they found the evidence she put out there for them to find : her own security code . He explains their trap and how they were hoping she ' d fall for it . She knew no one would believe she could be that careless by typing in her own security code , so that is exactly what she did , hoping that everyone would believe that someone else was trying to frame her . They also managed to trace the fact the information was entered from a console in sickbay . The Doctor also refutes her claim to be the victim of Orkett ' s disease , having already discounted it before she even mentioned it to them ; there is no doubt she is Cardassian . At that moment , the lights in sickbay go on and Captain Janeway and Tuvok enter . Upon realizing that she has been exposed , Seska finally admits everything . She claims to have done it for Chakotay and for this crew that is alone in this part of the galaxy , at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation Captain who destroyed their only chance of getting home . She mocks Federation values and angrily points out that if this were a Cardassian ship , they would be home now , and should forge alliances with powerful allies such as the Kazon Nistrim in exchange for some minor technology . She says that building a base of power in this quadrant at any cost is all that matters , finally pointing out to the Captain what a fool she is and what a fool Chakotay is for following her . She escapes " Voyager " using a voice - activated transporter program , known as Command XJL , to quickly transfer over to one of the nearby Kazon ships . Attempts to get her back fail and Janeway quickly realizes that they are going to be soon outnumbered by Kazon ships from all over if they remain . She decides to retreat , knowing that they haven ' t seen the last of Seska . Later in the mess hall , Chakotay sits down with Tuvok to discuss Seska ' s betrayal ; he does not understand how Seska , of all people , could fool him to this extent and asks if there was something about him that made it easy for everyone to deceive him . Tuvok reassures Chakotay that he does not strike him as particularly naive , and admits Seska had him fooled as well , and Chakotay – much to Tuvok ' s confusion – begins to feel a bit better about himself . Memorable quotes . " " We should be able to make an attempt by tomorrow . " " " " I want it ready by the end of the day . " " " " No Captain . When I say ' tomorrow ' , I mean tomorrow . I don ' t exaggerate . " " " " On the contrary , the demands on a Vulcan ' s character are extraordinarily difficult . Do not mistake composure for ease . How may I be honest with you today ? " " " " You will prepare for my arrival . " " " " Friendly sort . " " " " You Humans ! You ' re not used to roughing it , are you ? " " " " You were working for her [ Janeway ] , Seska was working for them [ the Cardassians ] . . . was " anyone " on that ship working for " me " ? " " " " Oh , thank the Prophet s ! " " " " You damned Vulcans and your defined parameters ! " " " " Get off this ship ! " " " " You know , I ' m really easy to get along with most of the time , but I don ' t like bullies and I don ' t like threats , and I don ' t like " you " , Culluh . You can try and stop us from getting to the truth but I promise you that if you do I will respond with all the ' unique technologies ' at my command . " " " " Of all the things to die for . . . It ' s a food replicator , or at least it was trying to be . " " " " Any unexpected life signs down there , commander ? " " " " Nothing but bloodworms . Neelix wants to take some back with us for a tartare he wants to make . I ' ve tried to talk him out of it . " " " " I was analyzing her blood chemistry to try to locate a compatible donor . But when I got the results , her blood was lacking all the common Bajoran blood factors . " " " " Meaning ? " " " " The only conclusion we can reach is that she is not , in fact , Bajoran . It appears Seska has been genetically altered . My suspicion is she was born Cardassian . " " " " Why would anyone on this ship betray us ? We ' re all in this together . " " " " I did it for you . I did it for this crew . We are alone here , at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens , because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation captain . A Federation captain who destroyed our only chance to get home . Federation rules . Federation nobility . Federation compassion ? Do you understand ? If this had been a Cardassian ship , we would be home now . We must begin to forge alliances . To survive , we must have powerful friends . The Kazon - Nistrim were willing to be our protectors in return for some minor technology . " " " " You are a fool , captain . And you are a fool to follow her . " " " " We ' ll have to wait for another day to settle up with Seska . " " Links and references . References . apple ; attention span ; automatic containment system ; axiom ; Bajoran ; berry ; bio - neural fiber ; bio scan analysis ; blood chemistry ; blood transfusion ; bloodworm ; bone marrow ; brig ; broth ; burn ; Cardassian ; chief inspector ; childhood ; childhood disease ; cloaking device ; combadge ; Command XJL ; conspiracy ; Culluh ' s raider ; cytological screening ; dermal regenerator ; donor ; EM scan ; Emergency Holographic Medical program ; Federation ; framing ; gin rummy ; herb ; homesickness ; hospital gown ; inorganic matter ; ; kaylo ; Kattell ; Kazon Collective ; Kazon - Nistrim ; Kazon - Nistrim raider ; Kazon warship ; kelotane ; leola root ; logic ; low orbit ; Maquis ; masking circuitry ; medical text ; mildew ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mineral ; mushroom ; mushroom soup ; needle ; neosorium ; nerve toxin ; nucleonic radiation ; Occupation of Bajor ; Orkett ' s disease ; pattern buffer ; poison ; polaron ; port ; Prophet ; pyrocyte ; Rakan folk song ; replicator ; ring ; scene of the crime ; security code ; spitting ; sponsor ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Security ; stealth ; stir crazy ; subspace bubble ; tartar ; transmission log ; transplant ; trespassing ; unnamed class - M planet ; " vakol " fish ; " Val Jean " ; vitamin ; Vulcan ; windpipe