Charles Tucker III

For the mirror universe counterpart, see Charles Tucker III (mirror).

Charles Tucker III
Charles Tucker III in 2161
Full name:	Charles Anthony "Trip" Tucker III
Known aliases:	Cunaehr it'Ra'tleihfi tr'Mandak, Sodok, Albert Sims, Philip Collier, Michael Kenmore
Species:	Human
Gender:	Male
Homeworld:	Earth
Birthplace:	Panama City, Florida, Earth
Born:	2121
Temporal Displacement:	2158-2160
Died:	officially recorded as 2161, still alive as of 2238
Affiliation:	United Earth, United Earth Starfleet, Section 31, Federation, Starfleet
Family
Mother:	Elaine Tucker
Father:	Charles Tucker II
Sibling(s):	Elizabeth Tucker (sister) (deceased) Albert Tucker (brother)
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse(s):	T'Pol
Children:	Elizabeth T'Les Tucker (deceased), T'Mir, Lorian
Other relatives:	Charles Tucker I (paternal grandfather) Owen Salazar-Tucker (nephew)
Career
Occupation:	engineer, Section 31 operative, gardener
Previous Assignment:	chief engineer/second officer, Enterprise
Final Assignment:	chief engineer, USS Pioneer
Rank:	commander (inactive)
Insignia:
Charles Tucker III in 2154

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

History

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

Tucker's early career in Starfleet saw him working on several projects whose aim was to produce high-warp capability drives. 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.

By 2143 Tucker had been assigned to the Warp 5 Program, as part of Captain W.M. Jefferies' engineering detail. During this time he was involved in the theft of the NX-Beta craft along with Jonathan Archer and A.G. Robinson, which resulted in the craft breaking the Warp 2.5 Barrier for the first time.

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

In 2151 Tucker was assigned to Enterprise as first officer and chief engineer. After T'Pol was permanently assigned to the ship and assumed the position of first officer, Tucker became the second officer. Tucker remained with the ship until March of 2155, however his tenure aboard Enterprise was not continuous as he briefly served as chief engineer of the Columbia under Captain Erika Hernandez in 2154.

Shortly after their mission to Qo'noS was concluded, Enterprise encountered a vessel adrift, the ship having been attacked and the crew killed. Tucker wanted to board the vessel with Archer, but was passed over for the mission in favor of Lieutenant Malcolm Reed and Ensign Hoshi Sato. Years later, Tucker would learn the identity of the attackers.

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 monastery of P'Jem, Tucker took part in the first human contact with the Andorians. This first contact was the first of several dealings Tucker would have with the Andorian Imperial Guard officer Thy'lek Shran. It also lead to a breakdown in relations between the Vulcans and Andorians. The following year, when Captain Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol were attempting to mediate a dispute, Tucker was left in command of Enterprise.

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 phase 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 III 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. During this time, Tucker began a relationship with the Denari Trant Neesa and was greatly affected by her death.

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

"Death" and Subsequent Activity

Trip Tucker sacrifices himself

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. 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 in 2155, Tucker ended up escaping from Romulan space and was rescued by the Kiri-kin-tha. Aboard ship, he met Ych'a who recruited him into the V'Shar, Vulcan's security bureau. While working with Ych'a, Trip saw her use mind melds to control Terix and make him believe he was a Vulcan. Trip was then placed undercover with the Vulcan name Sodok.

As Sodok, Tucker helped Ych'a and Terix destroy Aeihk'aeleir Shipyard, a Romulan facility building a warp seven drive. From there, the three clandestine agents traveled to Vulcan. There, they became involved in T'Pol's investigation into corruption within T'Pau's government. Tucker had planned on returning to the Enterprise with T'Pol, but he remained on Vulcan to ensure that Terix didn't return to his Romulan state. Tucker was then asked by T'Pau to assist Vulcan.

After the destruction of Surak's katra in the bombing of Mount Seleya Security Minister Silok ordered the arrest of Tucker's Vulcan associates, and tasked him with tracking down Terix how he left Vulcan shortly after the bombing.

After nine months of searching Tucker's vessel, the Romulan scout ship Kilhra'en was badly damaged in a pirate raid. While he was assessing the ship's status a Romulan warship picked him up with Terix onboard. After days of interrogation Admiral Valdore arrived and instead of an execution he got yet another mission. This time to locate a Ejhoi Ormiin facility where the dissidents were building warp seven capable ships.

So another months long search begun, this time with Colonel T'Luadh of the Tal Shiar at his side. Eventually the Tal Shiar learned that the facility was on Carraya IV so Tucker and T'Luadh set a course there. On the way however an attack knocked out their warp drive and comm systems. They decided that their best chance for survival was near light speed journey to Carraya IV. For them it only lasted for a few weeks but because of the time dilation effect two years have passed for the outside world.

He played a vital role in the Battle of Cheron. Before the battle, he was brought aboard Admiral Valdore's flagship. When the admiral ordered Tucker's execution, T'Luadh took it upon herself to carry it out, only to reveal to him that she is an undercover Vulcan agent. Tucker sent a secret message to Archer, to warn him about the location of the Romulan staging area. During the battle, T'Luadh put Tucker in an escape pod which exploded before Enterprise could reach it.

Before launching the pod, T'Luadh gave him a beacon to contact her people and beam him out. After years of espionage, uncertainty and mortal danger, Tucker became so paranoid, that when he turned the beacon on he tought it was a bomb, and when he was transported out of the pod, he felt like he blew up. This is when he realized how much he have changed and can never go back to his old life.

In service to the Federation

Following the war, Tucker returned to Federation space, and the surgical alterations that made him appear Romulan were reversed. Shortly after the Romulan war, Tucker assisted Section 31 by infiltrating a Terra Prime cell and stopping it from carrying out terrorist activities.

In 2162, Section 31 uncovered evidence, that the Malurian Raldul alignment started carrying out raids on Tandaran targets posing as members of the defunct Suliban Cabal. Tucker passed alonge some information about this to his old friend, the recently promoted Admiral Archer, but kept out some details in order to hide their sources.

Tucker would later assist Archer in stopping the Orion Syndicate from sabotaging the efforts to build the Federation during the Vertian crisis in 2163, when Navaar intended to provoke a war between the Federation and the "Mutes'. Tucker and Archer interrogated the Xarantine pimp Orav Penap, who revealed that his girls were manipulating Federation officials on the orders of the Three Sisters. He later went on to question one such girl, Devna, who was an intelligence agent herself in a way. They had a long discussion about freedom, and Devna found him interesting and enlightened enough that she gave him intel on the Orion-Malurian plot to keep Starfleet occupied enough not to pay much attention to their activities, particuarly the planned raid on a medical convoy in the Deneb system. While knowing it wasn't the whole truth, Tucker let her go.

Archer became increasingly uncomfortable with Tucker's activities in Section 31, and more than once tried to convince his friend to leave Section 31 behind and let his family and friends know that he was alive. However Trip felt that he changed so much in the wrong direction that he didn't want his loved ones to see him like that.

In 2164, during one of their rare personal visits, Tucker and T'Pol had a fallout about the nature and the future of their relationship with Trip thinking that they should focus on the present, while T'Pol would like to think long-term. To get away from her for a while, Tucker accepted a mission to Sauria, where a mysterious plague started to spread and the only cure was controlled and distributed by Maltuvis, the dictator of M'Tezir.

Tucker arrived on the planet using the alias Albert Sims. He quickly learned that Maltuvis was using the cure to essentially conquer countries without firing a shot, because he only gave the cure to countries that secede from the Global League, expelled all off-worlders and let a contingent of M'Tezir troops in their country to "administer the medicines". While working at a clinic in Veranith to gather information, Tucker met a mining engineer named Antonio Ruiz and the two soon grew to like each other.

After Veranith also submitted to Maltuvis, Tucker stayed behind to break into the hospital he worked in to steal a sample of the cure, hoping to get it into the hands of Federation doctors. During his infiltration, he was suprised to meet Ruiz, who was trying to do the same. Without revealing his true identity, Tucker let Ruiz to come along, and the two managed to obtain a vial of the medicine. After this they endeavoured to sneak into Narpa to take recordings in the country that has been occupied by M'Tezir for some time now to show all of Sauria what Maltuvis does in the name of help.

After succeding, Tucker contacted his supervisor, Agent Harris for support in liberating Sauria and putting an end to Maltuvis's rule. However Harris refused, stating that their number one priority is to protect the Federation and its interests, in this case not to jeopardize the trade agreement for a non-Federation world's sake. Harris ordered him to return and warned him, that should he decide to refuse and start a campaign of his own, Section 31 would be obligated to stop him at all costs.

Tucker resolved to leave, but visited his friend Ruiz one last time. Ruiz informed Tucker that he intended to stay behind and start a revolution if he has to in order the end Sauria's suffering. Tucker tried to deter the drunken Ruiz, who took this as a threat and punched him in the face. He left the bar, feeling that he no longer deserved to call himself Ruiz's friend.

He left the planet on the freighter ECS Harryhausen, and on the way home he telepathically contacted T'Pol for the confort of her company. He told her that there is no point in defending the Federation without defending what it stands for, and Section 31 doesn't do that. When T'Pol encouraged him to quit, Tucker countered that if he stayed, he could make a difference and change the agency, but became more skeptical himself.

In 2165, Tucker used the alias Philip Collier during the Ware crisis. Abramson Industries provided him with a cover of a civilian engineer working for the company, and a team including Doctor Olivia Akomo. As the head of the team "Collier" served as temporary chief engineer on the USS Pioneer during her mission into Ware territory. Trip Tucker disguised as temporary Chief Engineer Philip Collier argued with Malcolm that the Ware's medical technology could repair the damage the transporter had done to his reproductive system. Malcolm refused stating that he would not take advantage of a system for his own benefit which had cost too many lives of so many species throughout the quadrant.

Learning that Section 31 had engineered the destruction of the Partnership of Civilizations by providing the Klingons with the Ware shutdown code Starfleet had developed, Tucker decided that he could no longer be part of Section 31. Tucker tracked down the immortal being Flint in the Alpha Centauri system, living now under the identity Antonius Taranullus after the death of the Willem Abramson identity. As Flint had many centuries of experience in faking his own death and establishing new identities for himself Tucker requested assistance in faking his own death in order to leave the agency behind once and for all, with a determination to destroy it.

Later life

By 2186, Tucker assumed the name Michael Kenmore, and had several cosmetic alterations done to his face to ensure his anonymity. He moved with T'Pol to Vulcan, and eventually became the father of her two children: T'Mir and Lorian, named after his son from an alternate reality. This was not common knowlege, however, and most people believed they were the result of her reconciliation with Koss years later. He lived with them in T'Pol's ancestral home.

In 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 apparently played a role in the raising of the daughter of MACO's Nelson Kemper and Selma Guitierrez. He also unofficially contributed to the development of the Constitution-class starship, in the form of notes placed in margins on the plans when the class was still in the design phase.

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.