A Federation starship commanded by Owen Paris on which the young Kathryn Janeway served as science officer during the Arias Expedition.
The USS Al-Batani is mentioned in Caretaker, the first episode of Voyager, and never seen. It was named after the ninth-century astronomer al-Battani.
Kathryn Janeway served aboard early in her career as science officer under Owen Paris, taking part in the Arias Expedition. Paris became her mentor, and she tells his son Tom about that service when she comes to the penal settlement in New Zealand to recruit him for the search for the Maquis ship Val Jean.
The connection gives Janeway a personal stake in Tom Paris from the start, and it explains the warmth between her and Admiral Paris when the Pathfinder Project re-establishes contact with Voyager years later.