So, I just got my copy of the Lower Deck's Handbook (it's AMAZING) but one of the sections of the handbook goes into the legacy of the ships to carry the name Cerritos. (Think along the terms of the ships to carry the name Stargazer) and one in particular caught my eye...

A Leif Ericson class USS Cerritos was answering a distress call from Earth (in a manner not dissimilar to the Enterprise-E in First Contact), but before the Cerritos could reach Earth a Klingon Bird of Prey manned by Captain Kirk beat them to it.

But an unforeseen consequence of Kirk's time hopping erased the Leif Ericson class from reality.

It was a short blurb, but I actually felt chills. I'm reminded of the scene where Spock expresses uncertainty on how to accurately bring them back to the present, and Bones tells Spock to just go with his gut or something along those terms.

With the implied context that a miscalculation on Spock's part led to the erasure of the Leif Ericson class and presumably all hands, do you think Spock made the right call, given what he knew at the time?

No Discovery, Protostar, or La Sirenia… but I'll absolutely take what I can get.

Okay, so… I want to open with the observation that all the ships that have been attacked by the mysterious ship have been CGI.

Lower Decks tends to default to 2D unless the ship either will get a lot of screen time (California Class, Shuttles), offer fan service (Titan, Voyager, DS9, Sovereign Class), or get into combat (Bird of Prey, Clump Ship, Sh'Val, Texas Class, Green vessel).

Basically, Titmouse gets their money's worth from CGI models, and will use 2D where otherwise practical.

This season, as far as I can tell, all the attacked vessels have been CGI. Their screen time has all been extremely short. With the exception of the Bird of Prey (from 3 ships) all the attacked ships have been new to the series.

That said, their on screen appearances could've easily been substituted with 2D illustrations. Most of the ships barely move, which is perfect for 2D, but they opted instead for more expensive CGI.

Whatever McMahon has planned for these ships. it isn't going to be small.

With that stated. When the mysterious ship reorients itself to attack position, I can't help but feel like it looks kinda like a face. But humans are hard coded to see faces in things, so I didn't think much of it.

Then I saw the Bynar ship.

The 'nacelles' on the ship connect to a hub in the back… and it looks to me like hinges. Like the nacelles could arbitrarily reorient themselves like a pair of thighs attached to a hip.

Face. Hips. Legs.

The mysterious ship can't be stealing all these vessels for salvage. We've already seen that done with the Pakleds. The ship also can't be interested in these ships for their intended purposes, since there's nothing of substance that connects them all—beyond all having disgruntled lower deckers.

I don't know why they would do this, but I can't shake the feeling the mysterious ship is attempting to build something akin to Voltron or the Megazord. A giant bipedal mech made of a bunch of other ships.

Maybe the vertical Warbird is the torso. Maybe the Bird of Prey and the Orion ship are shoulder pads or feet. I don't know.

But I figured I'd bounce this idea off you guys and see if you could refute or add to this.

Just a forward that I wasn’t sure if this belonged on Startrel or Daystrom… but the fact that this deals with minor spoilers for the latest episode and an analysis made me lean to here.

Anyways, it was brought to my attention by u/tunkfurmer on Reddit that every scene about the attacks started with some lower deckers complaining about their captains before the attack.

So I went back and reviewed those scenes and… IMO it tracks.

Starting with the most recent episode, the Ferengi Keith admits that he was in communication with the vessel in return for profit. He was earlier complaining about Rom’s policy changes.

Next most recent, the Orion vessel made an unplanned encounter with the vessel. The Orion plagiarist/buttmonkey was the only one focused on his console during the encounter. The Captain demands to know how it got past their systems before the ship is destroyed.

With the vertical Romulan warbird, we learn both the male and female Romulans intended to betray the captain. The captain accuses the male officer, but he claims innocence. The female remains off frame for that exchange, but otherwise doesn’t trigger my suspicions outside of ‘By omission’.

And finally the Bird of Prey. Somewhat similar to the Orion Plagerist, the Spear Wielding Klingon seems more detached from his female counterpart to the vessel’s presence. But otherwise, like the Female Romulan, doesn’t act especially suspicious.

So…All four crews include at least one Lower Decker who was:

• Dissatisfied with the chain of command
• Operating a bridge console at the time of the attack
• Could be interpreted as not being surprised by the ship’s presence (the death beam,though, is another story.

Couple this with Keith’s betrayal and the Orion Captain’s bewilderment at the downed systems… I think we have saboteurs amongst the Lower Decks across the quadrant. Saboteurs that seem not to expect the sudden death beam.

All that said… I’m not sure what the vessel is after. The ships are destroyed, with no discernible corpses amongst the wreckage. It’s unlikely to be salvage considering how thoroughly the ships are vaporized. And none of the ships seem to fit a profile. You’ve got the small and nimble Orion Vessel to the large Warbird. None of the vessels seem to be in the midst of any especially important task.

With that established… I think we can possibly project what the vessel will strike next.

T’Lyn’s arc this season is about coming to terms with her exile from the Vulcan vessel. It seems likely to me that we’ll revisit the ship this season. And… given what we know of the profiles of the purported saboteurs… I suspect T’Lyn, as a misfit amongst Vulcans, is likely to be put in contact with the vessel.

As for the Cerritos herself, this season we’ve been introduced to two new ensigns. A command one who’s aware of the favoritism Ransom gives to Mariner and an engineer who out performs Rutherford, but gets snubbed out of a promotion. If the Cerritos gets put out of commission, I’d have my eyes on those two.

I was originally disinterested in the ongoing attacks… but in this light things have gotten quite fascinating to me.

So, to summarize before I start explaining myself:

I don’t think Ralsei is the prince from the legend. I do however believe he is actively updating his résumé so when the prophecy comes into play he fulfills a loophole by being’dark prince shaped’.

~~~

When we first meet Ralsei, his town is mysteriously empty. No citizens. No guards. No royalty. Further, the town shows no evidence of an attack or other forms of distress which throws doubt into the postulation that there could’ve once been a community that was forced to leave.

By completing chapters 1 and 2, the castle and town become occupied by refugees. Amidst those refugees are the King of Spades and the Cyber Queen.

So now we have a kingdom. It has subjects. It has a king. It has a queen.

On paper, these are all the things you’d need to have a proper kingdom. The pieces don’t properly fit, but they should be enough to pass a cursory check. Letter of the law vs Spirit of the law.

So… that leads to the question: Who is the intended prince from the dark?

Lancer seems like an obvious contender… except he introduces himself as the “Teardrop-headed kid. From the legend”—suggesting Lancer does indeed have a future role to play, but not necessarily as the prince from the dark.

Frankly, I have no idea who the intended prince could be. As far as we know, we might not have even been introduced to him yet.

So, assuming Ralsei is trying to insert himself into the legend… that begs the question of why.

When we first enter the dark world in Ch1, there’s a lot of iconography reminiscent of the Titans revealed in Ch2. It’s probably a safe assumption that the Titans are directly related to Ralsei’s true goals. But whether that’s to thwart them on his terms or set them in motion… I really don’t know.

My biggest complaint with Live Action Trek vs the two Animation shows is that they seem obsessed with giving us a black ship on a black background. It’s nice to be given a reprieve, even if for only one episode.