Charles Tucker III

Charles Tucker III, known commonly as "Trip", was a Starfleet officer. He best known for serving for four years as chief engineer of United Earth's first warp 5-capable starship, UES Enterprise, as a commander, under the command of his best friend, Captain Jonathan Archer and his marriage to T'Pol, the first Human-Vulcan marriage.

Childhood
Born in 2121, Charles Tucker III grew up in Panama City, Florida, the youngest son and second child of Charles Tucker II and Elaine Tucker. He had one older brother, Albert Tucker and a younger sister, Elizabeth Tucker. Tucker acquired the nickname "Trip" due to the fact that he was the third (the "triple") Tucker to be named "Charles," after his father and grandfather.

As a child, Tucker read The War of the Worlds with his mother. Growing up, he always wanted to be a starship captain, but his father thought he should be an engineer while his mother thought he should be an architect. At the age of 7, Tucker's mother bought him a copy of Emory Erickson: Father of the Transporter, and he made her read it to him every night for a month. It was his childhood admiration for Emory Erickson that made him finally decide that he wanted to be an engineer. Tucker would recall that he was extremely skilled at taking things apart, but not so good at putting them back together.

Tucker used to take his younger sister, Elizabeth, to a movie theater near their house. He later remembered that she would "scream like a banshee" if he didn't take her. Tucker once put a garden snake in his sister's doll house, and his family once had a large dog named Bedford.

On several occasions, Tucker went on camping trips with his friends. They would spend half the night looking up at the stars and wondering what Earth's sun would look like from a distant planet.

During his early childhood, Tucker attended Bayshore Elementary, where he attended his first dance. He knew before the event that Melissa Lyles, a girl who he had a crush on, would be there, and spent weeks practicing dance steps with his brother in preparation for the event. On the night of the dance, Melissa wore a red dress, and Tucker believed she was the prettiest girl there. He desperately wanted to ask her to dance with him, but he was not courageous enough to approach her. Tucker caught the girl looking at him a few times, but he eventually ended up standing in a corner with his friends. Twenty years later, he still regretted not asking the girl to dance.

In Tucker's tenth grade biology class, a Vulcan scientist who the children referred to as Mr. Velik came to teach the class about life on other worlds. Tucker, who had never seen a Vulcan up close before, was terrified of the teacher. Velik would often remind his students of the advice "Challenge your preconceptions or they'll challenge you," of which Tucker would associate with his memory of Velik.

During the late 2130s, Tucker used to drive his car out to Chatkin Point, park along the shoreline and stare at the moon with his girlfriend.

According to Tucker, his grandmother taught him to never judge a species by their eating habits. His personal favorite food was pan-fried catfish with hushpuppies.

Early career
Trip was self-taught, having learned engineering from working on boat engines. Tucker first joined the United Earth Starfleet in 2139, at which time he lived in Sausalito, a few blocks from the Vulcan Compound. He recalled that he "got into a lot of trouble" at Starfleet Training Command.

In 2140, Trip served on the Daedalus-project under Doctor Victor Brodesser. The Daedalus project was an attempt at creating a warp 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 including Brodesser.

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.

After the destruction of the warp-2 prototype vessel NX-Alpha in 2143, Tucker met Commander Jonathan Archer. He later assisted Archer and A.G. Robinson in stealing the backup warp-2 prototype vessel, the NX-Beta, in an attempt to prove to Starfleet Command that the engine design was sound. During this time, Tucker was a member of Captain Percival Jefferies' engineering team with the rank of Lieutenant.

In 2147, Tucker was on Titan as part of the Omega Training Mission together with Archer. When a malfunction with Tucker's environmental suit occurred, Archer saved his life by preventing Tucker from taking off his helmet on Titan's surface.

Enterprise' Mission
By 2151, Tucker held the rank of Commander. Renowned as a gifted orbital engineer, he first served aboard the starship UES Enterprise as chief engineer.

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.

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. This act made him very prone to protecting children in his later life, especially his two daughters and son.

On a visit with Archer and T'Pol to the Vulcan monastery of P'Jem, Tucker took part in a hostage situation with the Andorians.

Tucker was embarrassed when he read an encrypted message relayed to T'Pol by the Vulcan ship VCS Ti'Mur, only to discover that it was a letter breaking off T'Pol's engagement to her fiancé, Koss.

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.

Left in command of Enterprise when Archer and T'Pol were taken hostage by Coridan III terrorists, Tucker mounted a rescue mission with Reed against the advice of Captain Sopek of the VCS 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.

Xindi Conflict
Read More: Xindi Conflict

Tucker was devastated to learn that his sister, Elizabeth, was killed in the Xindi attack on Earth, being in San Francisco at the time of the August Wave.

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

In March 2155 was promoted to captain and accepted command of the ICS Tal'Kir. Less than a month later he held joint command of the Emergency Zero Fleet during the Liberation of Betazed. Tucker managed to evacuate with most of his crew before the Tal'Kir suffered a warp core breach and was destroyed during combat over Betazed.

Tucker and T'Pol married just prior to the Operation Seven Deadly Sins, the first Human-Vulcan marriage.

Later Life
In 2158 eventually became the father of daughter T'Mir Tucker, in 2160 to Jonathan Tucker and in 2165 to Elizabeth Tucker.

He was promoted to Admiral in 2166 and returned to Earth to become dean of engineering department for Coalition Fleet Academy Earth Campus and vice-chair for the orbital Earhart Propulsion Lab on Fleet Statoin Lee Kuan Yew.

Following the election of T'Pol to First Councillor of the Interstellar Coalition in 2184, Tucker became First Mister to the Interstellar Coalition. T'Pol served two terms before retiring in 2192, allowing Gralless of Tellar to win the position.

Tucker retired to Vulcan with his family in 2192 where he remained for the rest of his life.

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

At least seven fleet tenders or construction ships bore the name ICS Charles Tucker, though all were lost after varying years in service, all in combat. Ironically the only vessel not be lost in combat to bear his name was the ICS Trip Tucker, a battleship launched in 2259 and continued in service through the First and Second Coalition-Klignon War before being retired in 2301.

Service Record

 * Ensign, 2139-2140 CE
 * Lieutenant (Junior Grade), 2141-2142 CE
 * Lieutenant, 2141-2144 CE
 * Lieutenant Commander, 2145-2152 CE
 * Commander, 2152-2154 CE
 * Captain, 2155-2156 CE
 * Fleet Captain, 2157 CE
 * Commodore, 2158-2165
 * Rear Admiral (RDML), 2166-2192 CE

Posting

 * UES Volodarskiy, gamma shift engineering midshipmen (2139)
 * Daedalus-project, assistant propulsion calibrator, (2140)
 * UES Seadragon, alpha shift propulsion analyst (2141-2142)
 * Fleet Station Lee Kuan Yew, beta shift chief engineer (2143-2149)
 * Lunar Warp Five complex, NX-program (2149-2152)
 * UES Enterprise, chief engineer (2153-2155)
 * ICS ICS Tal'Kir, commanding officer (2155)
 * ICS Poseidon, commanding officer (2155-2156)
 * ICS Carmit, commanding officer (2157-2166)
 * Coalition Fleet Academy Earth Campus, dean of engineering (2166-2192)
 * Earhart Propulsion Lab, vice-chairperson (2166-2192)