The USS Cerritos is an Epic Grade 4 Explorer available from commander level 36, built around a Support ability that can target your own ships, Alliance members, or even other players. Since May, commanders level 35+ can also earn it by completing the recurring California Class event every Wednesday -- ten completions (ten weeks) hands you enough blueprints to build it, and the event stops appearing once you've finished.
Support works on any ship sharing a system with your Cerritos: select the Cerritos from the fleet bar, then either tap Support directly or pick a target ship in the galaxy viewer first. It costs Irvinite, claimable daily from the Support refinery and from the weekly Second Contact event. The buff gives the target ship a temporary base damage increase, and completing Cerritos research nodes in the Starships tree unlocks additional benefits -- notably, those benefits are determined by the target player's own research, not the Cerritos owner's.
Culver Particles -- the Cerritos's core upgrade currency -- come mainly from the Cerritos Refinery, which can also drop Cerritos Components and Lower Decks officer shards; refinery tokens come from the weekly Second Contact event. A Tier 5+ Cerritos unlocks Second Contact Elite, a rotating weekly event, and a Tier 12 Cerritos that completes it earns Rare Culver Particles needed for elite research that further boosts the Support ability.