Having completed our missions on the planet Ceti Alpha, we returned to Galileo Station.
Once safely docked, we held an "end of year" crew meeting aboard the USS Einstein in "10 Forward".
After which we attended Starfleet's Christmas Dance aboard Galileo Station, before going on a well deserved leave over the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
We returned to the USS Einstein in the New Year and met in the Command Room.
There I called Lt Godard up from the table to stand before me, where having praised Lt Godard for his excellent service over the past year, I was pleased to be able to promote him to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
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We went to the Bridge and took up our stations.
When all stations were ready, we contacted Galileo Station and obtained permission to disembark.
We slipped our moorings and engaged thrusters, having gone to Blue alert.
Once clear of Galileo Station we engaged impulse drive to take us out of the Ircassian system, before setting course to a nearby nebula and going to warp.
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My attention had earlier been drawn to a box wrapped in Christmas paper by the side of my chair.
I thought now was a good opportunity to see what Christmas present the crew (presumably) had left for me.
I started opening the box - and to my horror it all burst into flames !
My hands got burnt before the flames were put out.
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I made a ship-wide broadcast that any boxes found wrapped in Christmas paper should not be opened, but for Security to be contacted instead.
I ordered our Science Officer, Ensign Spring, to take the remains of the box and contents to the Science Lab. for examination and analysis.
Our Security Officer, Ensign Salsa, then took charge of the search for any similar boxes aboard the ship - but none were found
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We went down to the Science Lab, where asked Ensign Spring what she had discovered from the charred remains.
She reported that the box had contained an incendiary device meant to explode upon opening.
Fortunately it malfunctioned, so there was no explosion, just some hot flames.
Had it exploded everyone on the Bridge would have been killed.
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We pondered our lucky escape and started thinking that the box must have been brought aboard from Galileo Station whilst all the crew were on shore leave.
We then started wondering just who was responsible for such a dastardly act.
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Group Photo of the crew :-
Capt David7 Bravin - Commanding Officer
Lt Cmdr Slash Godard - Operations Officer
Ensign May Spring - Science Officer
Ensign Salsa - Security Officer
(Photos taken by Ensign Salsa & Capt Bravin)