Erica Ortegas

Lieutenant Erica Ortegas was a female Human Starfleet operations division officer who lived during the mid-23rd century.

Starfleet career

Starfleet Academy 
During her time at Starfleet Academy, Ortegas would brag that she was going to be the best pilot ever to graduate the academy. She would also invent her own maneuvers, like "evasive pattern Ortegas Gamma Three". ()

Early assignments 
Sometime after graduating from the Academy, Ortegas would go on to serve aboard the . For Starfleet Remembrance Day in 2259, she wore a pin memorializing the crewmates she had lost from this ship. ()

USS Enterprise 
By 2259, Ortegas was serving as a helmsman aboard the  under Captain Christopher Pike. () She was close friends with Christine Chapel. ()

When an alien consciousness from the Jonisian Nebula brought the fairy tale The Kingdom of Elysian to life on the Enterprise, Ortegas was used for the character of Sir Adya. Ortegas didn't remember the events after the ship was returned to normal. ()

Ortegas also took command of the Enterprise when Pike, Una, Spock, and La'an were not on the bridge. ()

Relationships

Romance 
Ortegas warned Chapel once not to get in the middle of a Vulcan relationship because they would force her to fight them with a lirpa - and she had the scars to prove it. ()

Appendices

Appearances

Background information 
Lt. Erica Ortegas was played by Melissa Navia. 

Ortegas was named for the navigator José Ortegas, one of the original characters named in the original Star Trek is... pitch. 

The Navigator. José Ortegas, born in South America, is tall, handsome, about twenty-five and brilliant, but still in the process of maturing. He is full of both humor and Latin temperament. He fights a perpetual and highly personal battle with his instruments and calculators, suspecting that space, and probably God, too, are engaged in a giant conspiracy to make his professional and personal life as difficult and uncomfortable as possible. José is painfully aware of the historical repute of Latins as lovers – and is in danger of failing this challenge on a cosmic scale.

This character later morphed into that of José Tyler, who appeared the original  pilot, , played by Peter Duryea. Although this individual has yet to appear in Strange New Worlds, a character of similar name, Ash Tyler (played by Shazad Latif), was introduced in Star Trek: Discovery.

Humans
Starfleet operations personnel
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel