Zach Banner


 * For the counterpart in the timeline created by Nero's incursion, see Zach Banner (alternate reality)‎.

Admiral Zach Banner was the former commanding officer of the USS Eagle (NCC-956).

Early life
Zach was a member of a long line of Starfleet captains dating back to his great-great-grandfather who captained a Starfleet vessel during the Earth-Romulan War. Like his older brother and his forefathers, Zach entered Starfleet Academy once he was of age. During his time in the Academy, he was known as an energetic and enthusiastic student who was very dedicated to his work. He also befriended another cadet named John Garrovick.

The Bismarck
In 2266, he was promoted to commander and assigned as first officer and helmsman of the USS Bismarck (NCC-3225-A) under Commodore Shrelic. Banner started his new command position on the space station K-19. While there, he met with one of his old friends from the Academy, but a drunken station crewmate decided to pick a fight with Banner. Banner won the fight but was interrupted by his new commander, Commodore Shrelic. Shrelic gave him a brief tour around the ship, then the two left the system.

Banner's first test as the Bismarck's second in command came when the ship was disabled and taken captive by Orion pirates. When the ship was locked into the pirate’s space station docking bay and Shrelic was taken aboard, it was Banner's task to free him. He and Security Chief Anten beamed over to the station dressed as Orions and with a little help from chief engineer, Ivan Kofloski, were able to rescue the commodore.

Captain of the Eagle
In 2269, he returned to Earth to take command of the USS Eagle (NCC-956) with his new crew: science officer/second in command, Michele Tyler, chief engineer, Clause Elberg, helmsman, Lt. Tevek and navigator, Oakley Gelson, among others. After the first few weeks of the Eagle's voyage, Charlie Christianson would become Banner's medical officer.

Encounter with the mirror universe
One week after taking command, he had an unfortunate encounter with his counterpart from the Mirror Universe. His counterpart attempted to kill him and take his place to return the Eagle to the Mirror Universe, but failed. The Eagle, after being attacked by the, successfully returned to the Prime Universe after the encounter and received help from the Romulan Republic of the Mirror Universe.

Bismarck infected
In early 2270, the Eagle intersected a Federation distress coming from the planet Gamma Ceti. Banner led a landing party to the frozen world to investigate. There he found a crashed Federation shuttlecraft manned by his old friend, Shrelic. Sadly, he came too late and Shrelic died shortly after Banner found him. His last message was that the Bismarck was in the Havar system. Banner set course to the system but found the Bismarck abandoned and adrift in space. The landing party beamed over only to find out that the ship had been taken over by an insane alien computer. With the shields raised and unable to beam back to the Eagle, Banner and Lt. Smith set out to find the alien computer. The computer tried to kill the captain using the turbolift, but failed. The computer then tried to trap the two between force fields. He then realized that the computer was only able to control one system at a time, so he ordered Elberg to launch auto-piloted shuttles as a distraction. The plan worked perfectly. The force fields were lowered and Banner was able to find and destroy the computer.

After the incident Banner took a several week leave of absence from the Eagle, during Banner’s absence Commander Tyler took command of the Eagle while he was away.

House of Tk'nev Conflict
In 2270 Banner and the rest of the crew of the Eagle were forced to go off to war when the house of Tk’nev invaded Federation space. On their way to the front, after receiving word of the attack, they received a distress call from the Dowive system. Once there, they found the Federation base had been leveled by a Klingon destroyer, which had beamed up one of the base's prisoners, after which the destroyer attacked the Eagle. After a short battle the Klingon attacker was driven off by reinforcements led by Admiral Jacob Ross of the USS Bismarck (NCC-3225-B).

Later career
In 2273, Banner would step down as the Eagle's captain to raise his daughter with his new wife. With his promotion to fleet captain, he requested assignments on starbases and planetary bases so he would be able to be with his wife to raise their child. He would not serve on a starship for the rest of his career.

By the 2280s, he was serving on Starbase 78 with the rank of Admiral where he had fond memories about his time on the Eagle. (Star Trek: Eagle)

Memorable quotes
"You can keep your flattery to yourself Ms. Tyler. I’ve never been one for it."

"You just make sure my first officer doesn’t die on me. I've lost too many friends today, that's an order."

Chronology

 * 2233: Zach Banner is born on earth
 * 2251: Banner enters Starfleet Academy
 * 2266: Banner is promoted to commander and is the first officer and helm officer on the USS Bismarck.
 * 2269: Banner is promoted to captain of the USS Eagle