Charles Tucker III


 * For Tucker's Mirror Universe counterpart, see: Charles Tucker III (mirror)

Charles Anthony "Trip" Tucker III was a noted Starfleet officer and Chief engineer aboard the Enterprise (NX-01) from 2151 to 2155, with a brief stint on the Columbia (NX-02) in 2154.

Early Life
He was born in 2117 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. (The Good That Men Do)

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 with all hands lost. (ENT novel: Daedalus)


 * * This was not the Daedalus class vessel of the same name.

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 (NX-01), he requested that Trip be assigned as his engineer.

Enterprise
Tucker served as Enterprise's chief engineer for most of the vessels 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.

In 2152, Tucker and Ensign Hoshi 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. (ENT novel: Daedalus's Children)

In 2153, he became romantically involved with Commander T'Pol.

"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 re-constructive 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 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. (ENT novel: The Good That Men Do)

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 visted the Starfleet War Memorial. 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 (ENT novel: Last Full Measure)