Erica Ortegas

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Name :	Erica Ortegas [1]
Species :	Humans

Erica Ortegas was a Human female born on 23 May 2233 in Barranquilla, Columbia. Her parents were Mirchia and Fidel Ortegas and she had two brothers Fabola and Beto. [2] Her high school had a gymnasium named after Travis Mayweather, the original pilot of the NX class USS Enterprise. He was a personal hero of Erica. [3]

As a cadet she had the ambition to become the best pilot in Starfleet. [4] After graduating she served on board the USS Palenque were she lost her first crew member. An event that she would memorialised during Starfleet Remembrance Day. [5] During the Federation - Klingon War, she served with distinction. [6]

In 2258 she became the alpha shift helm officer on the USS Enterprise in 2258. [4] As an excellent pilot Ortegas was often prevented from going on away missions, as her skills were often required on board. [2]

Her skills were demonstrated when the Enterprise was attacked by a far superior ship belonging to the Shepherds. She kept the Enterprise between their ship and the asteroid that the Shepherds thought of as sacred, preventing them from firing in fear of damaging the asteroid. [7]

In another example of deft flying she flew the Enterprise into a brown dwarf, which was orbiting a black hole, in order to hide from the Gorn. Not only did she take the ship to depths that crushed other ships, while maintaining safety; she used a high speed manoeuvre within the star to slingshot around the black hole. Ejecting an atmospheric converter and detonating it to cover their tracks. Escaping the Gorn unseen. [5]

Ortegas was finally able to go on an away mission when the Gorn attacked Parnassus Beta. She used her piloting skills to make it seem that the shuttle was space debris falling out of orbit, but was still able to land safely. Unfortunately, the mission did not end well with her being captured by the Gorn as beamed aboard one of their destroyers. [8] Put into a digestion pod she lost her half of her right hand before being rescued from the pod by La'An. Despite her injuries she was able to fly a stolen Gorn Hunter Class vessel. A ship she had never even seen used before. [9]

Doctor M'Benga was able to regrow her hand and her other injuries healed over the next few months. Physically, she had recovered, however, mentally she grew reckless and increasingly insubordinate, both signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. [10] Things came to a head when she started openly criticising first officer Una-Chin Riley over her plan to rescue Pike and M'Benga from Kenfori. Piloting in such a way to catch the attention of the Klingon's they wished to pass unnoticed and pushing the ship to an unsafe speeds in atmospheric conditions. All of which turned out to be unnecessary as Pike and M'Benga were about to eacape the planet in a Klingon shuttle. As a punishment Una removed her name from the duty roster for two weeks and imposed training requirements on her return. [11]

In another shuttle mission to scan a highly volatile region of space Ortegas discovered an unexpected wormhole which she was able to navigate without having her ship destroyed. On the other side of the wormhole she encountered a gas giant surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of moon fragments. Performing an emergency landing on one of the moons she found herself stranded with no hope of rescue. She also encountered another stranded being on the planetoid. To her horror it was a fully grown Gorn. Fortunately the Gorn realised it needed her as much as she needed it and the two were able to work together to survive their time on the moon. The Enterprise was able to open the wormhole sufficiently to be able to beam down an away team and rescue Ortegas. On seeing the Gorn La'An shot and killed it before Ortegas had a chance to explain. [12]

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Canon source

Backstage source

Novel source

DITL speculation

Associated with

Played by

Series	Season	Actor	Film / Episode Title
SNW		Melissa Navia

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1	SNW	1	Strange New Worlds
2	SNW	2	Among the Lotus Eaters
3	SNW	2	Those Old Scientists
4	SNW	1	Children of the Comet
5	SNW	1	Memento Mori
6	SNW	2	Under the Cloak of War
7	SNW	1	All Those Who Wander
8	SNW	2	Hegemony, Part 1
9	SNW	3	Hegemony, Part 2
10	SNW	3	Wedding Bell Blues
11	SNW	3	Shuttle to Kenfori
12	SNW	3	Terrarium

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Last updated : 16 Oct 2025

Series :	SNW Season 1
Episode :	Strange New Worlds

Series :	SNW Season 2
Episode :	Among the Lotus Eaters

Series :	SNW Season 2
Episode :	Those Old Scientists

Series :	SNW Season 1
Episode :	Children of the Comet

Series :	SNW Season 1
Episode :	Memento Mori