Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
Cetacean Ops was a facility aboard Starfleet starships in the late 24th century.
In 2366 of an alternate timeline created by a time traveling USS Enterprise-C, Doctor Joshua Kim was ordered to report to this facility on the USS Enterprise-D, shortly after the Galaxy-class warship encountered a temporal rift. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")
In 2380, Ensign Brad Boimler told D'Vana Tendi that Cetacean Ops was one of the greatest places on the USS Cerritos, which was a California-class vessel. (LD: "Second Contact")
The term "Cetacean Ops" was only heard in the "background chatter" during the TNG episode. The subtitles for the episode on streaming services including both Netflix and Amazon, as well as the TNG Season 3 Blu-ray release, give the facility's name as "station Ops." A line in "The Perfect Mate", in which Geordi La Forge mentions "dolphins" on board, may have alluded to the existence of the facility. However, it wasn't until Star Trek: Lower Decks that it was established that Cetacean Ops also existed in the regular timeline.
According to the 1996 reference book Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints, the cetacean ops facilities, including a cetacean navigation lab and four cetacean lifeboats, were located on deck 13, with the navigation labs extending into deck 14 as well. [1] Conceptual artwork at Andrew Probert's website shows that the facility may have been featured in the original version of Star Trek Online.