Baxial

The Baxial was a Talaxian freighter that was in service in the late 24th century. In the 2370s, the Baxial was owned by Neelix. During his stay aboard the , the Baxial was stored in the starship's shuttlebay. ()
When he first saw it, Neelix thought the Baxial was the ugliest thing he'd ever seen. But eventually, he couldn't imagine being without it. () A preserved Talaxian Furfly hung in the engine room of the ship for six years. Neelix later gave the fly to B'Elanna Torres as a good luck charm, after the construction of the quantum slipstream drive on the USS Voyager. ()
In 2371, the Baxial was sorting through wreckage in a debris field near when Voyager approached it, asking for information on the 's array. After successfully rescuing their crew members, Captain Janeway had Neelix's shuttle refueled, and prepared to depart, but Neelix and newly freed Kes requested to remain aboard, which led to the Baxial being stored in Voyagers shuttlebay. ()
Shortly after Neelix decided to stay aboard Voyager, the ship encountered a nucleogenic cloud being, which the crew decided to explore. Voyager accidentally damaged the cloud after it left and Janeway decided to return and help it heal. Neelix demanded that the captain not return to it, as he believed it was too dangerous, or to drop him and Kes off and pick them up later. Janeway bluntly stated that there wasn't time to prep Baxial for launch, and he'd have to sit tight. ()
In 2373, Neelix and a security team broke into an Akritirian prison using the Baxial. Janeway opted to use the Baxial for this task because Akritirian patrols would have attacked Voyager if it had entered Akritirian space. ()
In 2376, when Seven of Nine was researching the possibility of a conspiracy aboard Voyager, she asked Neelix for his ship's sensor logs from the time period around when Voyager was trapped in the Delta Quadrant. Included among the logs were records of 52 vessels, including a Cardassian ship, being brought to the Delta Quadrant. ()
In 2377, Neelix and Commander Chakotay used the Baxial to get through a security perimeter, in search of Voyagers crew, who'd had their memories erased. ()
Upon discovery of a Talaxian colony which was being bullied by a mining team in 2378, Neelix used the Baxial to protect another , which was planting force field emitters in the asteroid's surface. Following Neelix's decision to stay at the Talaxian colony, he piloted his shuttle there. ()
== Appendices ==
=== Appearances ===
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** (interior only)
** (first appearance)
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=== References ===
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=== Background information ===
In the first draft script for "Caretaker", the Baxial was described as "a strange, small alien pod poking about amid the flotsam, like a scavenger combing through a trash can." The vessel was scripted to have a "cramped and messy cabin [...] filled with an eclectic assortment of junk." 
The studio model of the Baxial was later seen as a background ship in episodes of Joss Whedon's series Firefly. 
The vessel may have been based on Jaheel's ship from , as per .
=== External link ===
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de:Baxial
Category:Starships