USS Cerritos

The USS Cerritos (NCC-75567) was a Federation starship operated by Starfleet in the 24th century, under the command of Captain Carol Freeman and later Jack Ransom. ()
==Service history==
===Carol Freeman's Command===
====2380====
The Cerritos was in service by stardate 57436.2 in 2380, where it was docked at Douglas Station before its second contact mission with the Galardonian High Council. 
During this mission, as Commander Jack Ransom was wrapping up his visit with the Galardonian High Council, he was bitten by a flying insect before beaming back to the ship, where he dismissed it. Later, this insect bite caused Ransom to have a seizure at the bar, due to a viral infection. The crew panicked as he suddenly became feral, and attacked other crew members by biting them, spreading the infection.
The situation quickly got out of hand, and the call was made for any uninfected crew members to meet in Transporter Room 8. As the crew gathered, Ensigns Brad Boimler and Beckett Mariner beamed back to the ship and were surprised to see what was going on around them. Boimler was still covered in a pink slime that he picked up on the surface after a run-in with a teething Spider cow, which Doctor T'Ana determined could be used to synthesize a cure for this virus. After one was produced, it was able to be distributed through the ventilation system, restoring the crew to their normal selves. In the aftermath, it was found that several power relays were damaged by the infected crew, leading to at least one turbolift breaking down. ()
On stardate 57601.3, the Cerritos was called to Mixtus III to assist the with the controlled implosion of an unstable moon that threatened the population. Besides assisting in terms of manpower, Captain Freeman was also instrumental in helping Mixtus inhabitants to reach mutually acceptable solutions that allowed the implosion to go forward. ()
The Cerritos was engaged in a standoff with the Drookmani over the salvage of a wrecked cargo ship. The Drookmani started picking a fight with the Cerritos by throwing debris at the ship with their tractor beam. Captain Freeman refused to engage them in a fight due to diplomatic reasons. The Cerritos stood her ground as the Drookmani continued to throw debris, weakening their shields. Freeman's patience eventually ran out, but it was too late to fight back. Shields and weapons became disabled. Freeman almost gave the order to abandon ship, when they noticed that the Drookmani ship started breaking apart due to a corrupted isolinear core that was ejected from an airlock by Ensigns Mariner and Boimler. ()
Captain Freeman, Commander Ransom, and Lieutenant Shaxs were selected by Admiral Syltrack for a mission to the Pisepian agricultural colony in disputed territory. In their absence, Captain Amina Ramsey of the was put in temporary command of the Cerritos, accompanied by Lieutenants Durga, Ottessa Warren, and Drew Prachett. Under Ramsey's command, the Cerritos journeyed to Khwopa to perform repairs on the inhabitants' water filtration system before rendezvousing with the , which was found adrift in space. It was later discovered that the Rubidoux had been invaded by a space entity that was feeding on the ship's energy. Captain Ramsey and her away team were able to save Captain Dayton and her crew before the entity consumed the whole ship. The destruction of the Rubidoux resulted in the birth of a space vessel lifeform. ()
When responding to 's distress call originated from the Kalla system, the Cerritos crew discovered that it was destroyed with the loss of all hands. Soon the Cerritos was attacked and captured by the same unknown vessel that had destroyed the Solvang, with the intent to dismantle the Cerritos for parts. The unknown vessel turned out to be a Pakled ship heavily modified with starship parts from over 30 species. Having its port warp nacelle torn away, the Cerritos was powerless to escape or fight back, but Ensign Brad Boimler discovered that the Pakled Clumpship's system could be easily hacked due to its need to accept systems from different species. With the help of his training hologram Badgey, Ensign Sam Rutherford was able to create three viruses that could disable the Pakled Clumpship. Rutherford uploaded one of the viruses into his implant and Lieutenant Shaxs flew them to the Pakled Clumpship using the shuttlecraft Sequoia. While Rutherford downloading the virus to the Pakled Clumpship's computer, Badgey triggered the auto-destruct of the ship, intending to kill Rutherford, as the latter had snapped Badgey's neck when the holo-program malfunctioned last time. Seeing no other options, Shaxs ripped out Rutherford's implant, placed him on the Sequoia, and pushed the shuttlecraft back into space, saving Rutherford but sacrificing himself as the ship exploded.
Freed from the Pakled Clumpship, the Cerritos restored its main power and attempted to fly away, but was soon captured by another three newly arrived Pakled Clumpships. Just as Ensign Beckett Mariner, taking command of the Cerritos, saw no option left but to abandon ship, the arrived and immediately opened fire on the Pakled Clumpships, forcing their retreat and saving the Cerritos. Later, arriving back at a starbase, the Cerritos underwent extensive repairs as its crew mourned the loss of Shaxs. ()
====2381====
In 2381, while on a long warp trip, the Cerritos was attacked by the Pakled Clumpship and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey . The Klingon captain Dorg had been supplying the Pakleds with weapons and intelligence as part of a conspiracy to destabilize the Federation and the Cerritos was nearly destroyed by the two ships. The arrival of the Vulcan cruiser , armed with experimental shield improvements designed by junior officer T'Lyn, turned the tide of the battle in the Federation's favor. Appalled by his commander's dishonorable tactics, young Klingon officer Ma'ah challenged Dorg for leadership and slew him in single combat before removing the Che'Ta from the fight. The Cerritos and the Sh'vhal were then able to force the Pakleds into retreat. ()
The Cerritos was assigned to help the in the other ship's first contact mission to Lapeeria, although the Cerritos hung back at first to not overwhelm the population with the arrival of two ships at once. During this time, Captain Carol Freeman was getting a transfer and a new ship, although she would not be allowed to take the Cerritos senior staff with her, causing tension amongst the crew only worsened by the news that the next captain would be someone new rather than one of the ship's officers being promoted to take Freeman's place. However, the crew rallied together to save the Archimedes after the other ship fell into trouble due to an unexpected solar flare. At Ensign Sam Rutherford's suggestion, the crew ejected the outer hull to safely pass through a debris field. Commander Jack Ransom piloted the ship using the manual steering column, a heads-up display in his faceplate and Beckett Mariner and Jennifer Sh'reyan calling out directions. The battered Cerritos made it through the debris field just in time to save the Archimedes using its tractor beam, pulling the other ship into a stable orbit.
Afterward, the grateful Captain Sonya Gomez allowed the Cerritos to handle first contact with the Lapeerians rather than the Archimedes which was the first time that the Cerritos had ever made first contact on behalf of Starfleet. Freeman decided to turn down the transfer, only to be arrested for conspiring with Klingon extremists to destroy Pakled Planet. ()
The Cerritos was held in drydock following Freeman's arrest. Convinced that her mother would be used as a scapegoat to appease people due to her role as a California-class captain, Mariner convinced Boimler, Rutherford, and Tendi to sneak on board to find proof of Freeman's innocence. When personal logs from Boimler proved shaky at best, Mariner decided the best thing to do was to hijack the Cerritos in search of the Klingons who were working with the Pakleds. Her attempt proved futile as her actions led to security discovering the ship leaving, her friends stopping Mariner, and Freeman herself returning, having been cleared of all charges by an investigation by Starfleet. ()
The Cerritos was assigned to help the in conducting post-Dominion War trade negotiations with the Karemma on Deep Space 9. However, after the Vancouver was unexpectedly rerouted to the Hasparga system to aid in the evacuation of a colony threatened by a brown hole -- something that supposedly didn't exist -- the Cerritos was forced to handle the negotiations by itself. Negotiations nearly broke down when Quark was apparently kidnapped by the Karemma, but it later came to light that they were arresting him for stealing some of their technology which Quark had used to create the Quark 2000. Freeman was able to negotiate a deal with the Karemma who resumed trade relations with the Federation. ()
The Cerritos later received a distress call from AWOL former crewmember Peanut Hamper who had managed to make her way to Areolus following the Battle of Kalla. In violation of the Prime Directive, Peanut Hamper had been providing the pre-warp civilization with advanced technology, forcing the Cerritos to make hasty first contact amidst an attack by the Drookmani. It was discovered that Peanut Hamper had called the Drookmani to make herself look like a hero to Starfleet and get rescued. Hijacking that was abandoned on the planet from when the Areore were a spacefaring race, the Drookmani attacked the Cerritos which was unable to counter the ship's powerful weapons. However, Rawda reactivated and saved the Cerritos. With Peanut Hamper threatening to call the Borg, the Cerritos crew took their wayward former ensign into custody and transferred her to the Self-Aware Megalomaniacal Computer Storage at the Daystrom Institute on Earth. ()
Freeman's proposed Project Swing By was eventually approved by Vice Admiral Les Buenamigo, sending the Cerritos to check up on the Ornaran and Brekkians whom the had made first contact with seventeen years earlier. However, Brekka had been invaded by the Breen, resulting in three Breen interceptors attacking and nearly destroying the Cerritos. The Cerritos was saved by the intervention of the automated . The disastrous Breen encounter and a subsequent PR disaster due to Freeman mishandling the presence of a reporter that was sent aboard the ship to do an exposé led to Starfleet Command deciding to decommission the entire . Mariner resigned from Starfleet entirely because she had been unfairly transferred to Starbase 80 over an unauthorized but entirely positive interview with the reporter. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Buenamigo had set the Cerritos up, having been aware of the Breen invasion ahead of time, to have an excuse to unveil the Texas-class. ()
In an attempt to stop this, Freeman hastily proposed a second contact race, pitting the Cerritos against the Aledo. Although the Aledo technically won, it did so by violating the Prime Directive, giving Freeman a chance to disqualify it. However, Ensign Sam Rutherford realized that the artificial intelligence used in the Texas-class was dangerously emotionally unstable and prone to patricidal impulses and rushed to Freeman's ready room to warn her, forcing Buenamigo to admit his scheme. Buenamigo responded to this turn of events by granting the Aledo full autonomy, against Rutherford's explicit warning, with the intent of having the Cerritos destroyed under the guise of the Cerritos having attacked the Aledo first in response to losing the race. Once given full autonomy, the Aledo turned on and murdered Buenamigo, then proceeded to attack Douglas Station and activate its sister ships the and . With the three ships dealing horrific damage to both Douglas Station and the , the Cerritos led the three away and destroyed the Dallas and Corpus Christi by using the warp core as a mine, but the Aledo survived, inflicting severe damage upon the Cerritos. However, Mariner, who had seen an FNN report on the attack, returned with the Free Spirit and the entire fleet of California-class ships who came to the Cerritos defense, destroying the Aledo. After the battle, the Cerritos returned to Douglas Station for repairs, the reputation of the California-class was restored, and Mariner rescinded her resignation and was reinstated on board the Cerritos. ()
The Cerritos visited Krulmuth-B to take readings of the time portal there. However, this resulted in Boimler and later Mariner accidentally getting sent back in time to 2259 where they became stranded. With the help of the crew of the , Boimler and Mariner eventually returned to their own time and the Cerritos. ()
The Cerritos was later tasked with bringing the , now decommissioned and transformed into a museum ship, from the Portelo system to Earth where it would temporarily be displayed at Starfleet Command in San Francisco before being permanently placed in orbit. However, an accident led to several Cerritos crewmembers getting "Tuvixed" before Ensigns D'Vana Tendi and T'Lyn found a solution. Afterward, several of the ship's junior officers received promotions to Lieutenant junior grade. ()
The Cerritos was assigned to help Admiral Vassery in talks with Grand Nagus Rom to have the Ferengi Alliance join the United Federation of Planets. After Freeman conned Rom, thus proving that the Federation respected Ferengi culture, Rom signed the original version of the formal membership application, officially taking the first step towards joining the Federation. ()
Later that year, the Cerritos was assigned to take Nick Locarno into protective custody when Starfleet believed that the pilot of a mysterious ship stealing non-Federation ships was targeting him, and sent an away team to New Axton to search for him. However, when they reached his hangar, they found him long gone, and Rutherford discovered blueprints for the mysterious ship, meaning Locarno himself was the pilot.
Meanwhile, a separate away team was sent on the to a weather satellite orbiting Sherbal V to separate Mariner from the search for Locarno due to an escalating mental health crisis caused by her recent promotion. However, the Death Valley was attacked and destroyed by the , stranding the away team on Sherbal V, where they discovered the command crews of the ships stolen by the mysterious ship. After a talk with Ma'ah, one of the stranded captains, helped Mariner come to terms with the issues causing her crisis, she rallied the crews together, only to be abducted by Locarno around the time the New Axton away team discovered Locarno's involvement in the thefts. ()
During the subsequent Nova Fleet crisis, the Cerritos command crew left the ship to rescue Mariner in the captain's yacht, leaving Boimler as the acting captain. Under Boimler's command, the Cerritos was able to open a hole in Nova Fleet's Trynar shield for the captain's yacht to get through. ()
====2382====
In 2382, the Cerritos was assigned to close quantum fissures that kept mysteriously opening up. This resulted in the ship accidentally crossing into a different quantum reality which had only a .357 variance between each other. The two versions of the Cerritos worked together to send the prime universe ship home, although not before the alternate Mariner tried to trade places with the prime Mariner. ()
The Cerritos was later sent to investigate a nanite infestation of the Cosmic Duchess, finding the AWOL Admiral Milius on the resort. The cause of the infestation proved to be the , an starship from another reality that had gotten sucked through another fissure and trapped in the prime universe. ()
While Boimler and Mariner investigated a quantum fissure in Klingon space, the Cerritos brought Doctor Gabers Migleemo to Praxon IV to meet with two renowned food critics, Legnog and Gonald. The ship's replicators were eventually given a two-star review by Legnog and Gonald while Boimler and Mariner's mission discovered that the recent quantum fissures were all manmade rather than natural occurrences. ()
Following an away mission to the ocean planet Piskes IX, the Cerritos experienced navigation issues and was forced to visit Starbase 80, the worst starbase in the quadrant, for repairs. During this time, most of the crew fell victim to an anaphasic lifeform and were left in a zombie-like state. The lifeform, Clem, was eventually discovered to have possessed Cetacean Ops officer Lieutenant Matt during the Piskes IX mission and was also the source of the ship's navigation problems. Having never intended any harm with his actions, Clem was allowed to remain on Starbase 80 by Commander Kassia Nox. Having gained a new appreciation for the infamous starbase, the Cerritos crew helped the station's personnel to effect some much-needed repairs. ()
The Cerritos later held peace talks between the s and s, complicated by new crewmember and Greek demigod Ensign Olly. After the crisis was resolved, Olly was reassigned to engineering due to her talents. ()
The Cerritos continued sealing quantum fissures, being sent to close three in just one week with Commander Jack Ransom noting that the crew was getting pretty good at it. However, while dealing with a rift near Dilmer III, the Cerritos discovered that the from another universe where everything was purple had left behind Lieutenant Commander Data who crashed on the planet which had a pre-industrial civilization. An away team from the Cerritos recovered Data's head, but a transporter malfunction and time dilation resulted in the team being trapped on the planet for a year of relative time. Afterward, at Data's recommendation, Tendi and T'Lyn were jointly promoted to senior science officer, and the Cerritos launched Data's head back through the rift to be recovered by the Enterprise before closing the rift. ()
On Halloween, the Cerritos faced an invasion by the Clickets who were seeking to use the buhgoon to develop cloaking technology for themselves. However, the Clickets were defeated when Freeman used their aversion to compliments to drive them away. ()
Shortly thereafter, Boimler received a message from his transporter duplicate William Boimler who had faked his death and joined Section 31. Having discovered the source of the rifts, William warned his counterpart that the prime universe faced destruction from a soliton wave created by the destruction of the if a way couldn't be found to stop it. With the wave threatening the entire multiverse with destruction, William had directed it to the prime universe in the belief that Boimler and the Cerritos crew could find a solution in time. ()
Although the was sent to deal with the threat, there wasn't enough time, and with the two Boimlers linked in ways that no one understood, the Cerritos was dispatched to close the rift. The Schrödinger possibility field near the rift caused the Cerritos to change into several different quantum reality versions of itself, including a Cerritos, the mirror universe , an Cerritos, a Cerritos, and a Cerritos before finally being returned to normal. In the midst of this, the Cerritos came under attack by Regla who was seeking revenge upon Ma'ah and Malor, but after Olly drained the Klingon shields, the effects of the rift destroyed Regla's ship. Rutherford was able to route the rift's energy into the Cerritos dilithium chamber to give the ship a power boost but at the cost of the ship splitting into two quantum possibilities with split systems that were trying to control the other. However, working together, Tendi and T'Lyn were able to merge the ship back together. Although the Cerritos was unable to close the rift, Mariner was able to build a dam to contain the energy at the cost of the rift being left permanently open.
Alongside several other ships, including the Enterprise, the Cerritos subsequently towed Starbase 80 to the rift where the legendary starbase would serve as the headquarters for a new mission to explore the multiverse. Captain Freeman was transferred off of the Cerritos to Starbase 80 to oversee the new mission alongside her husband, Admiral Alonzo Freeman. ()
===Jack Ransom's Command===
Following Captain Freeman's reassignment to Starbase 80, Ransom was promoted to Captain and was tasked by Starfleet to investigate some talking goo on Snickmik V. He also decided to pick Boimler and Mariner as his provisional first officers. ()
==List of contacts==
===First contacts===
*Lapeerians (2381)
*Areore (2381)
*Dilmerians (2382)
===Second contacts===
*Galardonians (2380)
*s (2380)
*Apergosians (2381)
*Ornarans (2381)
*Brekkians (2381)
==Legacy==
Despite only being a California-class starship, the Cerritos gained a considerable reputation amongst other ships, particularly in the 2380s. Having been a staple presence in numerous encounters with the Pakleds, and her other adventurous endeavors under Captain Freeman, the Cerritos gained favorable recognition amongst other ships of Starfleet. Despite this, her command crew was not invited to the Command Conference of Starbase 25 since it was not a capital ship. ()
In 2381, Ensign Kearns of the called the Cerritos the Enterprise of support ships. ()
In 2384, The Doctor, while talking about Dal R'El and his friends, mused that he hadn't seen a crew that dysfunctional since the Cerritos. ()
==Technical data==
===Crew quarter assignments===
*Deck 9: Barnes
*Deck 11:
**A12001: Beckett Mariner
**A12002: Sam Rutherford
**A12003: Brad Boimler
**A12004: D'Vana Tendi
**A12005:
***Alien operations ensign
***Human ops ensign
**A12007:
***Human sciences ensign
***Andorian ops ensign
***Human sciences ensign
*** 
**A12011: Human operations ensign
**A12027: Alien operations ensign
**A13005: Asif
**A13007: Karavitus
**A13009: Amadou
**A13011: Moxy
===Embarked craft===
The Cerritos carried a complement of Type 6A shuttlecraft, all named after 21st-century national parks in California, in its shuttlebay. ()
==Command crew==
*Commanding officer
**Carol Freeman (c. 2380–2382)
**Amina Ramsey (2380)
**Brad Boimler (2381) 
**Jack Ransom (2382–)
*First officer
**Jack Ransom (c. 2380–2382)
**Beckett Mariner (2380) ; (2382–) 
**Brad Boimler (2382–) 
*Chief engineer
**Andy Billups (c. 2380–)
*Chief medical officer 
**T'Ana (c. 2380–)
*Ship's Counselor
**Gabers Migleemo (c. 2380–)
*Tactical officer
**Shaxs (–2380, 2381–)
**Kayshon (2381–)
*Flight control officer
** (2380–)
**Brad Boimler (2380–)
**Beckett Mariner (2380–)
**Jennifer Sh'reyan (2381)
**Wendy (2381)
*Operations officer
**Barnes (2380–)
**Beckett Mariner (2380–2381)
**Andy Billups (2380) 
**Sam Rutherford (2381)
*Science officer
**D'Vana Tendi (2382–)
**T'Lyn (2382–)
===See also===
*USS Cerritos personnel
**Unnamed USS Cerritos personnel
== Alternate reality configurations ==
In an alternate reality, visited by the prime Cerritos in 2382, the Cerritos was under the command of Captain Becky Freeman after Captain Carol Freeman was reassigned to Starbase 80. The Cerritos became a shell of its former self as Becky Freeman was a despot who constantly punished her subordinates. According to King Billups, this version of the Cerritos was "mostly brigs", enabling Becky to imprison a large number of people. Another notable difference between this Cerritos and the prime Cerritos was that its LCARS displays were colored light and dark , rather than and orange. Conversely, the lights behind the alternate Cerritos transporter platform were yellow instead of blue. ()
In another alternate reality, Mariner served as an engineer aboard the Cerritos which was investigating the quantum fissures that kept opening up when Mariner fell through one and was rescued by the Anaximander. The data on the rifts collected by this Cerritos helped the Anaximander to find the source of the rifts. ()
In one quantum reality, D'Vana Tendi was the sole senior science officer, while in another, T'Lyn was the sole senior science officer. ()
In 2382, while within a Schrödinger possibility field, the was briefly transformed into multiple different configurations from multiple different realities. ()
=== Mirror Universe ===
One of the different configurations encountered was the Terran . In comparison to the Prime configurations, the ISS Cerritos carries more weaponry, including a pair of prominent weapons pods on top of the saucer, additional phaser banks, and two mission pods on the rollbar structure, one above the main saucer and one above the secondary hull, in addition to two style nacelles. 
=== Freedom-class === 
 
At least two variants were encountered, that were identified as a . One variant featured gold-colored hull accents, and one variant featured darker-colored hull accents. Each variant featured a single warp nacelle connected to the saucer sections by two underslung pylons. The ship's main navigational deflector was connected directly to the underside of the saucer.
=== Galaxy-class ===
A variant was encountered, with this variant featuring color accented nacelles, and accent striping along the saucer section, but otherwise appeared identical to the prime Galaxy-class configuration.
=== Sovereign-class ===
A single configuration was encountered, with this design retaining the prime 's original nacelles. Specialty-colored accents were displayed along the saucer section. This variant stood in stark contrast with Captain Carol Freeman's remarks on starship repairs coming out "looking all Sovereign-class".
=== Oberth-class ===
An variant was encountered and appeared similar to the prime universe configuration, however, accent coloring was displayed on the underside of the saucer.
=== Miranda-class ===
At least two variants were encountered. Relatively unchanged from the prime universe configurations, these two featured the ' original nacelles and color accents displayed on the bottom saucer section.
==Appendices==
===Appearances===
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===Background information===
The Cerritos is named after . The word "cerrito" means "small hill", appropriate for a lesser ship. 
According to Lower Decks series creator Mike McMahan, the yellow markings on the Cerritos indicate that its primary mission is second contact engineering support. 
McMahan also said that the Cerritos registry number (NCC-75567) is based on his mother's telephone number. 
Early concept designs of the Cerritos featured it as being a ship with the name (which became the name of another California-class ship) and two different registry numbers (NCC-1979 and NCC-2056). 
In , Eaglemoss/Hero Collector's Ben Robinson revealed that the company would manufacture the USS Cerritos as a starship miniature and estimated that its Lower Decks ships would begin to launch to retail at the end of 2021 or early 2022. 
===Apocrypha===
In Star Trek: Lower Decks - Crew Handbook, it is revealed that the Cerritos was launched in 2371. It was the eighth craft in history to bear the name, including a failed manned rocket ship created by Chronowerx Industries, a supposed Leif Ericson-class that was temporally wiped out by the Whale Probe incident, and a that participated in the clean-up following the near-invasion of Earth by the Borg.
===External links===
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