Umberto 'Beto' Ortegas

Universe :	Prime Timeline
Name :	Umberto 'Beto' Ortegas [1]
Species :	Humans

Umberto "Beto" Ortegas was a Human male, son of Mirchia and Fidel Ortegas and brother of Erica and Fabola Ortegas. [2] He was a documentary filmmaker. In 2260 he was present on Starbase 1 at the celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Federation. He was also present at the mass hallucination caused by Trelane, a young Q, in which Spock was to marry Chapel. After that event was resolved he was commissioned to do a full documentary about Starfleet. [1]

In order to produce the documentary he joined the crew of the USS Enterprise for several months. Duing which time he took part in an away mission to Vadia IX, where he witnessed the explosion of an Orb and the blinding of Dana Gamble, a young nurse. Subsequently he learned that Gamble had been killed and his body taken over by a Vezda, an evil race from the dawn of time who had been locked in an ancient dimensional prison. [3]

His initial draft of the documentary painted Starfleet as a violent militaristic organisation set on performing dangerous missions for the glory. However, he later admitted that his opinion was coloured by the fact that he blamed Starfleet for taking away his sister Erica Ortegas, the ships pilot. Unhura, whom he had become friends with, pointed out that Erica had wished to join Starfleet and go on such missions. He view of Starfleet was changed when he witnessed the crew dealing with a sentient being, that had been forced into becoming a weapon of mass destruction by a non-federation race. He noticed that they had talked to the creature and followed its wishes to die, rather than continue to be a weapon. Realising his error he re-edited his documentary to show Starfleet in a more realistic light. [4]

Colour key

Canon source

Backstage source

Novel source

DITL speculation

Associated with

References

#	Series	Season	Source	Comment
1	SNW	3	Wedding Bell Blues
2	SNW	2	Among the Lotus Eaters
3	SNW	3	Through the Lens of Time
4	SNW	3	What is Starfleet?

Page views : 227

Last updated : 18 Oct 2025

Series :	SNW Season 3
Episode :	Wedding Bell Blues

Series :	SNW Season 2
Episode :	Among the Lotus Eaters

Series :	SNW Season 3
Episode :	Through the Lens of Time

Series :	SNW Season 3
Episode :	What is Starfleet?