The Cerritos supports Captain Sonya Gomez's USS Archimedes on a first-contact mission, but the season ends with Freeman arrested for destroying the Pakled homeworld.
The Cerritos assists the USS Archimedes, commanded by Captain Sonya Gomez, on its first-contact mission. When a solar flare disables the Archimedes and drags it toward a planet, the Cerritos uses a modified tractor beam to hold it in place. Freeman is offered a promotion that would take her off the ship, and when Mariner overhears and spreads the news, the senior staff turn on the captain.
Tendi learns she is being moved from sickbay to the sciences division, a step T'Ana insists is a promotion, and Rutherford finds a hidden memory suggesting his implant was installed against his will. The season ends on a cliffhanger as Freeman is arrested for supposedly detonating a Veruvian bomb on the Pakled homeworld.