Charles Tucker III

Charles Anthony ("Trip") Tucker III was a noted Starfleet officer and chief engineer aboard the Enterprise from 2151 to 2155, excluding a brief stint on the  Columbia in 2154.

Early life
He was born in 2121 to Charles and Elaine Tucker and grew up in Panama City, Florida.

He had a younger sister, Elizabeth, who was killed in the Xindi attack of 2153 and a brother, Albert.

When Trip was a teenager, he and his friends had often dared each other to open a hatch door on a grain silo. Trip was the one who eventually accepted the dare and opened the hatch, only to have the contents spill out. When the contents of the silo threatened to bury Trip alive, his brother Albert and a friend dug Trip out. 

Early career
In 2140, Trip served on the Daedalus project under Doctor Victor Brodesser. The Daedalus project was an attempt at creating a Warp-5 engine using a cascading ion drive. On the eve of Daedalus's launch, Trip discovered a flaw in the engine design that he feared would result in a fatal overload. He confronted the doctor about his concerns, but Brodesser calmed Trip's fears and the ship launched on schedule. In the mission control room, Trip could only watch in horror as his worst fears were realized and the ship exploded in an ion-cascading reaction with all hands lost. 

Tucker met Jonathan Archer in the year 2143 and the two quickly became friends. When Archer was given command of the first Warp-5 vessel, the Enterprise, he requested that Trip be assigned as his engineer.

Enterprise
Tucker served as Enterprise's chief engineer for most of the vessel's early active duty days from her launch in 2151 until March of 2155, with a brief stint as chief engineer of the Columbia (NX-02) under Captain Erika Hernandez in 2154. He also was briefly the vessel's first officer.

Tucker wanted to board the Axanar vessel with Archer, but was passed over for the mission in favor of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Ensign Hoshi Sato. On a landing party to an unknown Minshara-class planet, Tucker was affected by pollen that made him believe Subcommander T'Pol was denying the presence of non-existent rock creatures. Tucker was inadvertently impregnated by Ah'len, a Xyrillian engineer, while effecting repairs on her ship. When Enterprise caught up with the Xyrillians again, Ah'len was able to have the child, who was not genetically Tucker's, removed from him to be carried by another host. On a visit with Archer and T'Pol to the Vulcan sanctuary of P'Jem, Tucker took part in the first human contact with the Andorians. Tucker was embarrassed when he read an encrypted message relayed to T'Pol by the Vulcan ship Ti'Mur, only to discover that it was a letter breaking off T'Pol's engagement to her fiancé, Koss. Tucker was part of the away team that made first contact with the Akaali. Tucker and Reed clashed over the task of installing plasma cannons on Enterprise, but Tucker ultimately agreed with Reed's viewpoint about taking acceptable risks. During Enterprise's visit to a stellar nursery, Tucker discovered that the ship had been saved from destruction by an unknown person disconnecting an antimatter conduit; this proved to be the Suliban, Silik, who had been ordered to save Enterprise for unknown reasons. Left in command of Enterprise when Archer and T'Pol were taken hostage by Coridan terrorists, Tucker mounted a rescue mission with Reed against the advice of Captain Sopek of the Vulcan ship Ni'Var. Tucker spent days adrift with Reed in Shuttlepod 1, believing for much of that time that Enterprise had been destroyed and they were the only two survivors. This experience forged a closer friendship between the two men. Tucker successfully encouraged Kov, a Vulcan engineer and one of the V'tosh ka'tur ("Vulcans without logic"), to contact his ailing father, from whom he had become estranged. 

In 2152, Tucker and Sato were the only two Enterprise crew members to escape imprisonment when the vessel was taken by the Denari of an alternate universe.

Tucker allied himself with the Miners Guild and the alternate universe's version of Victor Brodesser to combat the forces of Denari General Sadir and to liberate the Enterprise's crew from the Rava One prison colony, re-take Enterprise, and return safely to their own dimension. 

In 2153, he became romantically involved with Commander T'Pol. ( et al.)

"Death"
For reasons that remained classified for (approximately) 250 years, Tucker was forced to fake his own death in 2155, days before the foundation of the Coalition of Planets, precursor to the United Federation of Planets.

In files de-classified in the early 25th century, it was revealed that Tucker had been recruited by the rogue spy agency known to some as Section 31 to infiltrate the space of the Romulan Star Empire and sabotage the Romulans' research into developing a Warp-7 stardrive.

In order to facilitate this, Tucker underwent reconstructive surgery on Adigeon Prime, a world whose natives were familiar with Romulan appearance, in order to fit in behind enemy lines. Tucker and Section 31 agent Tinh Hoc Phuong were the first humans to see the true appearance of the Romulan people and realize their kinship to the Vulcans. Section 31 kept this information under wraps, fearing that if the link between the Vulcan and Romulan people were to be discovered, it would shatter the still-fragile Coalition.

Tucker returned to Romulan space shortly after the formation of the Coalition of Planets in order to gather intelligence on the Romulans before the inevitable war with the Empire broke out. Tucker's specific activities during this period remain unknown, but at some point the historical record was altered, changing the date of Tucker's "death" from 2155 to 2161. The reasons for this remain a mystery. 

Later life
As far as history was concerned, Trip Tucker died in 2161, but he lived until at least August of the year 2238, when he visited the Starfleet War Memorial, although the silent reflection he had hoped for was made impossible by young Sam and Jimmy Kirk. Tucker survived under an assumed name, and had several cosmetic alterations done to his face to ensure his anonymity. Tucker apparently played a role in the raising of the daughter of MACO's Nelson Kemper and Selma Guitierrez. Partly for not being an integral part of his "other" children's lives. (In an alternate timeline), his son Lorian, and an unnamed Xyrillian infant he served as surrogate for. 

Legacy
Tucker was the namesake of the Tucker Memorial Building on the grounds of Starfleet Headquarters, which housed the offices of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers Command Liaison in the 24th century. His picture was displayed prominently in the building's lobby. 

The Federation starships USS Tucker were named for Trip Tucker and various other famous persons with the surname Tucker.