Stefanie Ortega

Stefanie “Stef” Ortega is a Starfleet officer who currently serves as the Chief Engineer on the USS Atlas. All that she learnt about engineering, she learnt from Commander Liz Nelson; she is Nelson’s protégée.

Ortega often found that people disregarded her due to her diminutive stature; as a result, her personality filled that gap. She proved herself to be a very talented engineer early in her career and expects perfection from her team to ensure that the ship is always in top shape.

She is rumoured to have faced down two Nausicaan pirates while on an away mission through her sheer force of will, though the truth of the story is that her ‘force of will’ was a phaser and two security officers. This, along with her high expectations of her team, overbearing personality, frequent cursing in Klingon and her love of fresh gagh, has resulted in many crew members being a little wary of her. She is happy to perpetuate this as it is.

During her off hours, she is often found in Ten Forward, discussing engineering with Commander Nelson, or training in the holodeck with a Bat’leth. Ortega is convinced that she will be able to defeat her mother-in-law in sparring if she trains more often. She is also known to work on side projects where she tries to develop new tools and systems for the ship.

As a mother, she enjoys raising her daughter, B’Elova, with her Klingon husband, Korven, who serves in the Klingon Defence Force. Though she is rarely with Korven, due to their jobs, they are madly in love with one another. She embraces his Klingon heritage more than most would expect.