The inhabitants of the planet Lapeeria, with whom Captain Sonya Gomez of the USS Archimedes was to make first contact when a solar flare crippled her ship.
The Lapeerians are a humanoid people who have reached the stage at which the Federation opens relations. They appear in First First Contact, the finale of the second season of Lower Decks.
The Cerritos is assigned to support the USS Archimedes, whose captain Sonya Gomez is to lead the contact. Before she can begin, a flare sends debris through the system and leaves the Archimedes without power, drifting towards an ionised field and beyond it the planet, where its impact would be catastrophic for the people below.
The Cerritos can reach the stricken ship only by stripping off its own outer hull plating, a job that takes the whole crew and a team from Cetacean Ops. The rescue succeeds, and the Lapeerians' first sight of the Federation is a starship arriving stripped to its frame.