Cristóbal Rios
Cristóbal "Chris" Rios was a male Human who lived during the late 24th, early 25th, and mid 21st centuries. ()

Biography

Early life
Rios was born in Chile on Earth. His mother taught at Starfleet Academy. When he was about eight years old, Rios sneaked into a flight simulator there and scored higher than any cadet in history. ()

First Starfleet career 

Rios rose to the rank of Starfleet commander and became executive officer on the , a heavy cruiser, where he served under Captain Alonzo Vandermeer. His serial number was SC-850-705. ()

In 2390, while patrolling the Vayt sector, the Ibn Majid encountered a small ship of unknown origin, and brought aboard its two passengers, Beautiful Flower and Jana. Unbeknownst to Rios or his Captain, the two were Soong-type androids, built by Bruce Maddox and Altan Inigo Soong on Coppelius. Captain Vandermeer received a "black flag directive" from Commodore Oh at Starfleet Security to kill the two beings, otherwise his ship would be destroyed with all hands. Vandermeer shot the two envoys with his phaser, killing them instantly. When Rios, who witnessed the murder, angrily confronted his captain, Vandermeer shot himself out of remorse.

In order to protect the crew, Rios covered up the incident as Vandermeer had been ordered to do. He beamed the bodies into space, deleted the transporter logs, and told the fleet that the Captain had committed suicide for no reason. Six months later, Rios was discharged from Starfleet, officially for post-traumatic dysphoria. ()

Captain of La Sirena
By 2399, Rios had become friends with Raffi Musiker, and had assumed command of the unregistered starship La Sirena, a Kaplan F17 Speed Freighter. Designed for a crew of six, Rios operated La Sirena on his own with the help of the five Emergency Holograms from the Emergency Hologram basic installation. He used the self-scan option to overlay his own image and parts of his memory and personality over the basic installations, creating five similar but distinct EHs. Each had Rios’s body, though they styled their clothes and hair differently and spoke with different accents.

The Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), named Emil, who mostly differed from Rios in his more groomed hairstyle, had an English accent. The Emergency Navigational Hologram (ENH), who called himself Enoch, spoke with a light Northern Dublin Irish accent and his hair and beard were a little greyer than his Captain's. The Emergency Hospitality Hologram (EHH), aptly named Mister Hospitality, had a Midwestern US-American accent and had no grey at all in his well-groomed hair and beard. Emmet, the Emergency Tactical Hologram (ETH), spoke mostly Chilean Spanish, though he could speak accented English as well. He had long, unkempt hair and of all five holograms, he had the easiest rapport with Rios. Lastly, the Emergency Engineering Hologram (EEH), Ian, was closest to Rios in looks but spoke with a strong Scottish accent.

Despite his insistence that he chose the option by accident, Rios never reverted the self-scan, allowing the holograms to keep his likeness. Shortly after their activation, however, he carelessly edited their memory files to erase the details of his traumatic experience on the ibn Majid, leaving the EHs with gaps in their functionality. ()

Working for Picard
In 2399, Rios was contacted by Raffi Musiker, who asked him to do a job for retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard. After meeting with Picard on La Sirena, Rios agreed to help the Admiral in his search for Bruce Maddox. Since their journey would take them to Freecloud, Rios gave a ride to Musiker, who was headed for the planet as well. ()

Over the course of the journey, the passenger complement of La Sirena grew through the unexpected additions of Dr. Agnes P. Jurati, Earth's leading expert on synthetic life, Elnor, a Romulan qalankhkai (sworn blade) of the Qowat Milat order, and Seven of Nine, who was working for the Fenris Rangers at the time. ()

When they reached Freecloud, Rios helped Picard execute a scheme to retrieve Bruce Maddox from the nightclub owner and dealer of Borg parts, Bjayzl, who was holding Maddox prisoner. The plan fell apart when Seven of Nine revealed she had history with Bjayzl and was intent on killing her. Rios and Picard were able to get Maddox and the others back to La Sirena, and Rios made it possible for Seven to take her revenge on Bjayzl. ()

After Picard learned from Maddox that the synth woman he had been searching for, Soji Asha, was on the , he asked Rios to take him there. Rios said that flying into Romulan Space would double his fee, but he agreed to take Picard there. While Picard beamed over to the Artifact to find Soji, Rios remained on La Sirena with Musiker, Jurati, and Elnor. By the time Picard found her, Soji had begun to realize that she was no ordinary human and Narek, her Tal Shiar handler, was trying to kill her. Picard used the Borg Cube's spatial trajector to flee to Nepenthe with Soji, and Rios followed them on La Sirena. Elnor, however, decided to stay on the Artifact to cover Picard's escape.

During the multi-day journey to Nepenthe, Rios and Musiker discovered that they were being tailed by a Romulan scout ship. Despite Rios's evasive tactics, their pursuer always discovered them, leading Rios to suspect the Romulans might have slipped Musiker a tracking device when she left the ship on Freecloud. In fact, it was Jurati who had been given a viridium tracker by Oh, who was still posing as the head of Starfleet Security at the time. Jurati was starting to realize that Oh had actually been working for the Romulans all along, and when Rios told her about his suspicions regarding Musiker, Jurati injected herself with noranium hydride, which neutralized the tracker in her blood, nearly killing her in the process. All these developments led Rios to react rather tersely when Picard called him from Nepenthe to inquire about their ETA. ()

Once La Sirena arrived at Nepenthe, Picard boarded with Soji, planning to take her to the nearest Federation starbase, Deep Space 12, to get Starfleet's support in preventing the Romulan invasion of Soji's homeworld in the Ghulion system. When Rios saw Soji for the first time, however, she triggered a severe post-traumatic episode, since she looked exactly like Jana, the alien envoy Captain Vandermeer had killed in front of Rios ten years before.

Rios told Picard he would set a course for DS12, but then he was done. He set the course, activated his Emergency Holograms, and then locked himself in his quarters where he got drunk on a bottle of pisco. When Musiker came to find out what had happened, he told her about his traumatic past, which in turn allowed her to realize that Jana and Beautiful Flower had been androids and that Commodore Oh, who ordered their death, was a Zhat Vash agent.

The crew assembled to put together their pieces of the story, finally unravelling the mystery around the synths, Vandermeer, the Zhat Vash, Commodore Oh, and the Attack on Mars. Soji, realizing she had given Oh the location of her homeworld and the means to exterminate her people, tried to hijack La Sirena and fly her through a transwarp conduit to get to the Ghulion system. She erected a forcefield around the bridge, but Rios was able to power down and regain control of the ship by singing it Arroz con leche, a lullaby his mother taught him and which he had turned into a means of breaking a system lockout. However, when Soji asked him to take her home "for Jana's sake", he quickly agreed. ()

Upon arriving at Coppelius, as Soji called her homeworld, La Sirena was attacked by Narek, who had followed them through the transwarp conduit. Before he could seriously damage the ship, however, the Artifact, now once again a functioning Borg cube under the command of Seven of Nine, arrived over the planet as well, and then all three ships were taken out by the s, Coppelius's orbital defence. Drained of all power, La Sirena crashed on the planet's surface.

From there, Rios and the others set out to check on the Artifact, which had crashed a few kilometers away. They were reunited with Elnor and Seven of Nine, who decided to stay and help the xBs by restoring the cube. Rios, Picard, Musiker, Jurati and Soji proceeded to Coppelius Station, where they met Altan Inigo Soong and the other synths he and Maddox created, including Sutra, Jana's twin sister. After informing Soong and the synths about the impending Romulan attack, Rios and Musiker headed back to La Sirena to try and repair the damage to the ship so they could evacuate the synths. ()

With the help of the fundamental field replicator which Saga had given them, Rios and Musiker were able to restore power to La Sirena. Just as the systems came back online, they discovered that Narek was standing outside the ship, throwing rocks at the front window to get their attention. They disarmed Narek and had a discussion, where he explained to them that the synths were building a transmitter that would open the door to something bad, prophesied by the Romulans as Ganmadan, the destruction of all organic life. They were joined by Elnor, and the four of them spent the evening around a campfire outside the ship, where Narek told them the full tale of Ganmadan and of Seb-Cheneb, the Destroyer.

In the morning, they made a plan to stop the construction of the transmitter. They would bring Narek to Coppelius station, claiming they had found him wandering outside their ship. The synths believed Narek had killed Saga before fleeing the day before, so they would be happy to have him back. While they would all have to hand in their weapons before entering the station, Rios would carry a molecular solvent grenade concealed in a soccer ball, which he would use to destroy the transmitter controls. Their plan worked until they were discovered by Soong, a short distance from the beacon. However, Soong had discovered that it was actually Sutra who killed Saga, and he decided to help Rios and the others.

After Soong deactivated Sutra, Elnor and Narek caused a distraction, trying to lure Soji away from the beacon's controls she was working on, so Rios could throw the grenade and destroy the tower. This part of the plan failed, however, and Soji caught the grenade and threw it high into the sky, where it exploded ineffectively. Rios and his friends were forced to watch as Soji kept working on activating the beacon, while Picard and Jurati, who had made their way to La Sirena, tried to stall the Romulan armada which had arrived over Coppelius.

After the arrival of Starfleet led to a stalemate and Picard convinced Soji to deactivate the beacon so she would not become the Destroyer the Romulans feared, Soji beamed Jurati and Picard down onto the planet surface. Picard, who had been getting increasingly ill over the course of the mission, died, surrounded by Rios, Musiker, Elnor, Jurati and Soji. Afterwards, shared his grief and a bottle of alcohol with Seven of Nine. He told her he had promised himself he would never again "let another self-righteous hard-assed old starship captain into my heart" and "Never again have to stand there and watch him die." – and yet he had done it again with Picard.

Later, after Soji, Jurati, and Soong "resurrected" Picard and the Federation lifted the ban on synthetics, Rios set out on new adventures aboard La Sirena. He was joined by Soji, Picard, Seven of Nine, Musiker, Elnor, and Jurati as the ship's new (if temporary) crew. ()

After Coppelius 

By 2401, Rios had returned to Starfleet and had been promoted to captain. He was given command of the . ()

Life in the 21st century 

After correcting the timeline, Rios chose to stay in 2024 with Teresa Ramirez and her son Ricardo. Together, Rios and Teresa formed the Mariposas, a medical movement. Rios captained the Mariposas through tough times and hard terrains while Teressa helped whoever needed help whenever they might need it. Ricardo would eventually go on to form a team of the brightest minds in the world who figured out how to use the alien organism brought back by Renée Picard from the Europa Mission to heal the ocean and clean the sky.

For the rest of his life, Rios and his family remained close friends with Guinan and presumably Renée who became Ricardo's "Auntie Renée." Teresa eventually died of old age while Rios died "slightly younger" in a Moroccan bar fight over medical supplies and his last breath was into a cigar.

After returning to 2401, Jean-Luc Picard visited Guinan who showed him a picture of Rios and Teresa and informed him of their fates along with some funny stories about his old friend. ()

Alternate timeline

In an Alternate timeline, Rios was a colonel in the forces of the Confederation of Earth, leading the eradication of the last vestiges of resistance on the Vulcan Front. He was the pilot of the , and had a prejudiced opinion of Vulcans. He said that if the Vulcans were not stomped, they would mind meld the Humans and scramble their balls until they were begging to die.In 2401, Rios was fighting in the Vulcan War. On Eradication Day, he planned a bait and switch tactic with his subordinates to lure the Vulcan fighters in where they could be ambushed. The plan was working when this Rios was replaced by Q with his |counterpart from a different timeline. Posing as the other one, this Rios agreed to a plan from Zilah in which she would take two squadrons and cut off the pursuing Vulcans.In the intelligence briefing summary of this war for President Annika Hansen, Rios was listed as a field officer. ()

Personal life

Rios was a fluent speaker of Spanish, using the distinct Chilean dialect.

He was ambidextrous and could draw using both hands at once. ()

Despite his negative feelings towards Starfleet due to the circumstances of his departure, after having spent years in the service, Rios kept up certain habits when it came to his ship. Having just boarded for the first time, Picard quickly noted that La Sirena was kept in impeccable shape, and that her captain had maintained and stowed everything in accordance with Starfleet protocol. ()

Family
When Rios was a child, his mother often sang him the lullaby "Arroz con leche". ()

According to Rios, his father "wasn't around much" and he never really knew him. () By 2399, Rios's mother had died, prompting him to state that he had no family. ()

Rios found father figures in both Vandermeer and Picard. He told Raffi that he liked to pretend that Vandermeer was his father. Internally, Rios called Vandermeer "Pops", and even nearly did so out loud a couple of times. () After Picard’s temporary death, Rios was devastated, because he once again “let a heroic captain into his life”. He later said he thought of Picard as a father, though Picard did not see him as a son. ()

Friendships
After his dismissal from Starfleet, Rios established a close friendship with Raffi Musiker. The two of them knew how to comfort each other, and had an easy rapport, often joking together or teasing each other.

According to La Sirena's various Emergency Holograms, Rios had grown cynical and withdrawn since his departure from Starfleet. () However, this assessment was undermined by Rios’s fast friendship with the passengers he took on his ship during his adventure with Picard. He quickly used Spanish endearments for Soji (“hija”) and Elnor (“hermano”), and looked up to Picard and Seven of Nine. ()

Even though he only spent a few hours with her, Rios remembered a peculiar eating habit of the android Jana, french fries dipped in peppermint ice cream. After seeing Soji for the first time triggered a post-traumatic episode in Rios, he apologized to Soji for his rudeness towards her by replicating her the same food. ()

Romantic relationships
Over the course of their time together on La Sirena, Rios developed a romantic relationship with Agnes Jurati. The two shared a number of funny but also emotionally fraught moments. Shortly after Bruce Maddox’s death, they decided to sleep together, though the encounter might not have been as romantic or uncomplicated as they had hoped. ().

After the events in the Ghulion system, Rios and Jurati became a couple, sharing a kiss on the bridge. () However, their relationship did not last a full year and by 2401, they had separated. () Despite their apparently acrimonious breakup, Rios continued to care deeply about Jurati. ()

After time traveling to 2024, Rios and Doctor Teresa Ramirez developed a romantic relationship. () Despite their short acquaintance, Rios decided to remain in the 21st century with Ramirez and her son, while the others returned to their own time. He later married Teresa and according to Guinan, the two spent the rest of their lives together. ()

Interests
Rios often smoked cigars and had a fondness for pisco brandy. He was a skilled soccer player and practiced the sport in his free time, keeping a collection of soccer balls on board La Sirena. He had a collection of different weapons (mostly firearms) stored in the ship's small armoury and a collection of mermaid art and figurines from numerous cultures adorning his quarters.

Rios was an avid reader and kept a number of printed books in his quarters. In addition to having read one of Jean-Luc Picard's books, he was fond of existentialist philosophy, having read philosophers such as Miguel de Unamuno, which he described as concerning "the existential pain of living with the consciousness of death and how it defines us as Human beings.''" ()

In addition to the printed books, Rios also had a fondness for other antiques. He kept Alonzo Vandermeers record player and vinyl collection (), and expressed his appreciation for life in the 21st century after he and the rest of Picard’s crew got stuck there. He particularly delighted in the taste of non-replicated food.

Appendices

Appearances 
 (Season 1)

 (Season 2)

Background information
Cristóbal Rios was played by Santiago Cabrera.

External link

De:Cristóbal Rios
ja:クリストバル・リオス
Humans
Starfleet personnel (24th century)
Starfleet command personnel
USS Stargazer (NCC-82893) personnel