Trip Tucker's History
Commander Charles Tucker III, known affectionately as "Trip" Tucker, was a 22nd century Human male Starfleet officer. He served for ten years as the chief engineer and Second officer of Earth's first warp 5-capable starship, Enterprise NX-01, under the command of his best friend, Captain Jonathan Archer.
Born in 2121, Charles Tucker III grew up in Panama City, Florida. He was born with a birthmark on the right side of his body. 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.
Trip was self-taught, having learned engineering from working on boat engines. Tucker first joined Starfleet in 2139, at which time he lived in Sausalito, a few blocks from the Vulcan Compound. He subsequently recalled that he "got into a lot of trouble" at Starfleet Training Command. By 2143, Tucker was a member of Captain Jefferies' engineering team, with the rank of lieutenant. After the destruction of warp-2 prototype vessel NX-Alpha in that year, Tucker met Commander Jonathan Archer. He later assisted Archer and A.G. Robinson in stealing a backup warp-2 prototype vessel, the NX-Beta, in an attempt to prove to Starfleet Command that the engine design was sound. Shortly thereafter, Tucker taught Archer how to scuba dive off the coast of Florida.
In 2147, Tucker was on Titan as part of the Omega training mission, together with Archer. A malfunction with Tucker's environmental suit occurred on Titan's surface, so Tucker desperately tried to take off his helmet, but Archer saved his life by preventing him from doing so.
By 2151, Tucker held the rank of commander. Renowned as a gifted orbital engineer, he first served aboard the starship Enterprise NX-01 as chief engineer. His quarters were on B Deck, in one of the starboard sections.
He experienced existence in a weightless environment when Ensign Travis Mayweather showed him the "sweet spot" on Enterprise. Aboard the starship, one of Tucker's self-appointed responsibilities was overseeing movie night. Tucker took part in the efforts to return the Klingon Klaang to his homeworld with information that could avert a civil war, and he and the rest of the crew came into conflict with the Cabal, who were attempting to ignite a war on orders from a strange humanoid from the future. The mission was successful.
Tucker was part of the away team that became infected by the pollen of the plant life on a deserted planet Enterprise was exploring. The pollen caused paranoid and delusional behavior in the away team; Tucker thought that each member was trying to kill him.
In the course of first contact with the Xyrillians, Tucker boarded their ship to fix their engines. The physical environment was considerably different to his usual and Tucker found acclimatisation difficult. During his stay on their ship he developed a relationship with Ah'len, an engineer. After the ship left, Tucker discovered he was pregnant. Although he had not knowingly had a sexual encounter, a game he and Ah'len played that enabled them to read each other's minds may have served as a medium to transfer genetic material. While Tucker was the first Human male to become pregnant, as well as the first known Human participant in interspecies reproduction, Doctor Phlox said the embryo was not technically Tucker's child, but that he was simply serving as a host. When the ship was tracked down, the embryo was successfully transferred to another host.
While visiting a Vulcan monastery at P'Jem, Tucker, along with Captain Archer and Sub-Commander T'Pol, became involved in a dispute between the Andorians and Vulcans. He was held hostage along with the others until they were rescued by Lieutenant Malcolm Reed. It was discovered that the monastery was a front for a listening post operated by the Vulcans.
On a mission to Coridan, Tucker and Reed attempted to rescue Archer and T'Pol from rebel forces, but were captured themselves. They were freed by the Andorian Shran and his men, who helped Tucker and Reed rescue T'Pol and Archer.
Tucker and Reed became stranded in a shuttlepod after they mistakenly believed Enterprise was destroyed when they found debris at the coordinates where they were supposed to meet the ship. In reality, the debris was from another ship, the crew of which Enterprise had rescued and was transporting back to their planet. With their air running out, Tucker jettisoned the impulse engines as a flare, which Enterprise saw and thus was able to come to their rescue.
The Ferengi hijacked Enterprise after rendering the crew unconscious. Tucker, who was in a sealed compartment, was not affected. He woke T'Pol, and both worked to play the Ferengi against each other, trapping them and regaining control of the ship.
Tucker was captured by a symbiotic creature which had stowed away on Enterprise. The creature integrated Tucker's nervous system along with other crewmembers it captured to its own system, but after the crew learned that the creature wished to return home to reunite with its main host, it released Tucker and the others.
Tucker, as part of an away team to salvage an abandoned ship on a planet, found that there was a settlement there. They were called the Kantare; after their ship crashed, they were stranded on the planet. Tucker became romantically involved with Liana, but it was discovered that the settlement was a hologram created by Liana's father, Ezral, to keep his daughter company.
Tucker and Archer, after helping to repair Zobral's ship, were invited to visit his village. Zobral was really a rebel fighting against an oppressive government, and when the village was attacked, Tucker and Archer became stranded in a vast desert until they were rescued with help from Zobral.
While on shore leave on Risa, Tucker and Reed were robbed by two beautiful aliens who turned out to be morphs using their disguises to lure their victims.
When Enterprise was captured by Silik and the Suliban, and Archer was transported to the future by Daniels, Tucker helped retake engineering, restore the timeline, and return Archer to his own time. Required to build quantum beacons, Tucker was forced to learn quantum engineering at a level beyond his training.
While attempting to discover the powers of an automated repair station Enterprise had entered, Tucker was transported off the station back to Enterprise in an effort to stop the investigation. He later discovered that the station was using humanoid lifeforms to power its computer.
Tucker rescued Archer and Reed from a planet that had given them a death sentence, and modified a Suliban cell ship with a cloaking device in order to save them. While doing so, however, he accidentally "cloaked" his right forearm.
Tucker became stranded on a barren moon with an Arkonian who had tried to shoot his shuttle down. At first, they tried to kill each other, but realized that the only way they could survive was to cooperate with each other. Zho'Kaan's dehydration was causing cellular breakdown, which made using the transporter not an option. Tucker refused to leave him, and cared for him until a modified Arkonian shuttle rescued them.
When three aliens who boarded Enterprise warned that a deadly neutronic wavefront was quickly approaching and the crew needed to take shelter to be protected from the storm's deadly radiation, Tucker suggested that the one heavily-shielded place on board that might suffice for the eight-day ordeal was the cramped quarters of the catwalk, the maintenance shaft that ran the length of each nacelle. While they were in the catwalk, alien intruders attempted to steal Enterprise, and Tucker helped drive them off.
During a stop at a medical conference, Tucker met Feezal, Phlox's wife. Feezal became attracted to him and tried to seduce him, and when Tucker told Phlox about this, he was told by Phlox that he should have taken advantage of Feezal's offer. While assembling a neutron microscope Feezal delivered, Tucker bragged he could put back together just about any equipment he had ever met. Later, Tucker and Reed discovered that a derelict ship Enterprise salvaged was from the future. Even the few papers he read on spatial geometry could not explain the ship's dimensions.
While investigating an alien ship, Tucker's body was invaded by an alien wisp that began to control his actions. Their plan was to take over the bodies of the crew and steal Enterprise.
The Vulcans and Andorians were again involved in a dispute over a planet, Weytahn. While Archer tried to mediate the dispute, Tucker, commanding Enterprise, stopped the ships of both sides from engaging in battle when he steered Enterprise between the two fleets, giving Archer time to settle the dispute.
Tucker and Archer were unjustly sentenced to the penal colony of Canamar. A prisoner, Kuroda, took over the ship and enlisted Tucker and Archer's help in escaping. His plan was to transport off the ship to another he was meeting, and crash the ship along with the other prisoners and guards. Tucker and Archer foiled his plan, and were rescued by Enterprise.
Tucker led an away team to rescue three Denobulan geologists from the planet Xantoras. The government had ordered all aliens to leave their world immediately, and Tucker had to persuade the geologists to leave.
Tucker's encounter with the Vissians proved costly. The Vissians used a cogenitor, a third gender, to reproduce; these cogenitors were treated as an inferior class with no rights. After meeting with a cogenitor, Tucker found that it had the same mental capabilities as the other Vissians, and took it upon himself to convince the cogenitor he met to fight for her rights. He also secretly taught the cogenitor how to read, play go, and educated it about its rights as an individual. The cogenitor chose the name "Charles" for itself, in honor of Tucker. Later, it asked for asylum on Enterprise, which, after several meetings, was denied. Archer finally decided that to grant asylum would ruin any chance of Starfleet making successful trade with the Vissians. Several days later, Tucker was informed that the cogenitor had killed itself, and blamed himself for the suicide.
Tucker was devastated to learn that his sister, Elizabeth, was killed in the Xindi attack on Earth. He became bitter after his sister's death, and was full of hatred and revenge. His mental state led to many sleepless nights. Phlox tricked Tucker into taking Vulcan neuro-pressure from T'Pol; this helped him sleep properly, and moved his relationship with T'Pol to another level. Tucker's first contact with the Xindi occurred at a mining camp where a Xindi, Kessick, was rescued. Kessick was killed in the escape, but gave the coordinates of the Xindi homeworld before he died.
An away team consisting of Captain Archer, T'Pol, Lieutenant Reed, and Ensign Hoshi Sato was endangered on the homeworld of the extinct Loque'eque race when a virus left on the planet mutated Archer, Reed and Sato into the lost species. When another alien race landed on the planet, determined to exterminate any of these species, Tucker led a MACO team to stop the alien exterminators and rescue the away team.
Tucker attempted to "rewrite the book on warp theory" once he realized the Cochrane equation wasn't constant in the Expanse, with spatial gradients destabilizing the warp field. Eventually, he succeeded, as he rerouted the system taps, compressing the antimatter stream before it entered the injectors, thus stabilizing the warp field.
Tucker was badly injured, ending up in a coma, due to a primary injector flare during an encounter with a polaric field. He was cloned using a mimetic simbiot in an attempt to harvest brain tissue from the clone in order to save his life. The clone, Sim, attempted to escape Enterprise to save his own life, but decided against it at the last minute and allowed Phlox to transplant the tissue even though it meant his death.
After recovering a small craft in the Expanse with an unknown alien in it, Tucker determined that the alien was a test subject to see what effects the atmosphere would have on it. This was the first indication that an alien force was behind the Xindi and their attack on Earth.
After coming in contact with a Xindi-Insectoid ship, Tucker questioned Archer's ability to captain Enterprise after Archer had been infected with a toxin that made him believe he was the caretaker to the eggs of the Xindi-Insectoids, and was endangering the mission. Tucker led the crew in a mutiny to retake the ship from Archer before he could be cured.
Tucker piloted a captured Xindi-Insectoid shuttle and discovered the location of the Xindi weapon. In the battle of Azati Prime, Enterprise took heavy damage and lost eighteen crewmen. Tucker was terribly affected, and it did not help when he had to compose letters to the families of the slain crewmembers, a task that reminded him of his sister's death. To make matters even worse for Tucker, he found it extremely difficult to forgive Degra, one of the Council members of the Xindi who had designed the Xindi weapon, and had a couple of tension-filled encounters with him, as Archer was trying to gain Degra's trust. Eventually, however, the experience of consoling others helped Tucker finally deal with Elizabeth's death.
After an accident using Xindi subspace corridors, Enterprise met its future counterpart. Enterprise's counterpart was captained by Lorian, the son of Tucker and T'Pol. The crew of the future Enterprise helped Enterprise keep an appointment with Degra, so peace could be discussed.
Tucker played a large role in the final battle with the Xindi. He destroyed one of the spheres that disrupted the energy field that the Sphere-Builders, who were behind the Xindi attack, were using to help the Xindi; this gave time for Archer and the MACOs to board the weapon, destroy it and save Earth.
After traveling back in time to 1944, Tucker was assaulted by Silik, who stole a shuttle. The time shift was part of the Temporal Cold War. Tucker and Reed returned to Earth to try and rescue Archer, but were captured by Nazis and their alien allies, the Na'kuhl. The Na'kuhl were trying to change history by helping the Nazis win World War II. Fortunately, the plot was foiled, and the timeline was restored.
On returning home to a hero's welcome, Tucker faced heartbreak when he traveled to Vulcan and witnessed T'Pol's marriage to Koss.
In 2154, the Augment crisis began. Dr. Arik Soong had genetically-engineered Human embryos; reaching adulthood, these Augments attacked a Klingon ship and killed the crew. When the Klingons demanded justice, Enterprise was dispatched to capture the Augments, with Soong on board to help them. After T'Pol was captured by the Orions and sent to a slave market, Tucker was able to decode a neural restraint and free her. He discovered that the Augments had captured Cold Station 12, where other Augment embryos were stored, and took part in the operation to retake the Augments' ship and stop the threat.
Following the destruction of Earth's embassy on Vulcan, Archer and T'Pol searched for the Syrrannites, who were believed to be the perpetrators, on Vulcan's surface, leaving Tucker temporarily in command of Enterprise. With help from Ambassador Soval, Tucker uncovered a conspiracy in which the Vulcan High Command attempted to cover-up the bombing as well as launching a preemptive strike against the Andorians, who they believed had constructed a devastating weapon based on Xindi technology. Tucker warned Shran, and participated in the engagement between the Vulcan and Andorian fleets.
Tucker was infected with a silicon-based virus while part of a landing party on a planet's surface, looking for salvage amongst Klingon waste. Although Tucker initially died due to the virus, he was resurrected by two Organian observers, who were watching the crew's reaction to the virus.
On November 12, 2154, Enterprise was escorting a group of Tellarites to a conference with the Andorians to settle long-standing disputes. However, the Andorian ship was destroyed by what appeared to be a Tellarite ship. Among the survivors was Shran. The Tellarites denied any involvement, and then Enterprise was attacked by an Andorian ship. In reality, the ship was a Romulan drone ship piloted by a neural interface. This was an attempt by the Romulans to start war among potential allies. Tucker and Reed transported over to the ship and discovered that it was unmanned. They attempted to sabotage the ship and after doing so, ejected out into space where they could be transported back aboard Enterprise. Tucker built a telepresence unit for Enterprise in order to prepare it for battle against the Romulan drone ships. The Romulans' plot was foiled with the cooperation of Humans, Tellarites and Andorians; this would be the foundation for a federation of planets.
Tucker transferred off Enterprise to Columbia NX-02 due to his feelings for T'Pol. He later returned to Enterprise to help them deal with the Klingons, who faced extinction due to a genetic virus caused by their experiments with Augment DNA. Tucker transferred back to Enterprise permanently shortly after an encounter with Orion females who attempted to take over the ship by influencing the minds of the male crew; he proved to be immune due to his new-found psychic bond with T'Pol.
Terra Prime, a xenophobic terrorist faction led by John Frederick Paxton, threatened to disrupt a conference to form a coalition of planets, and had created a clone using the DNA of Tucker and T'Pol, with the plan of using the child to stir anti-alien feelings. When Tucker and T'Pol tried to infiltrate Terra Prime, they were captured and taken to a secret base on Mars. From there, Paxton threatened to attack Starfleet Headquarters with a laser cannon unless all aliens left the Sol system. Tucker tried to sabotage the weapons system, but was discovered and thrown into a cell. He escaped and was able to meet with a team from Enterprise who had come to rescue him and T'Pol. Tucker led them to Paxton's complex where they were able to deactivate his weapon and end his threat. Sadly, the child, whom T'Pol named "Elizabeth" after Tucker's deceased sister, died due to a flaw in the procedure used in her creation. It was initially believed that the causa mortis was an incompatibility between the Vulcan and Human DNA, a hypothesis Doctor Phlox shortly afterward determined to be wrong.
Tucker continued serving as chief engineer aboard Enterprise until 2161, when the ship was scheduled to be decommissioned prior to the signing of the Federation Charter. En route to Earth to attend the founding ceremony of the alliance that would give birth to the United Federation of Planets, Enterprise made a detour to Rigel X to rescue Shran's daughter, Talla. Tucker participated in the rescue operation. Knowing Archer's importance to the upcoming ceremony, he attempted to persuade Archer to remain aboard Enterprise, as it was safer, but Archer insisted on joining the mission. Ironically, it was Tucker himself who was nearly killed on the mission when the catwalk he was on was shot out from under him. Fortunately, Archer was there to save him, and the mission was successful.
Unfortunately, the victory ultimately came at the cost of Tucker's life. Shortly after Enterprise left Rigel X, Talla's abductors somehow managed to board the ship. When the alien trespassers threatened Archer, Tucker quickly thought up a plan to lure the aliens away from Archer. Despite orders from Archer to remain quiet, he insisted and persuaded one of the aliens to render Archer unconscious. With his captain safe and no longer in the way, Tucker lured the aliens away to a nearby plasma junction, which he claimed was a communications system which he would use to contact Shran in order to bring him to the aliens. With the intruders fooled, Tucker rigged the junction to explode, killing the alien trespassers. However, Tucker was also critically injured in the explosion and he ultimately died, having sacrificed himself for his captain.
