It was Christmas Eve. To celebrate the holiday, the captain decided to have a party for the crew in the mess hall.

The chef prepared numerous dishes to feed the guests. Music was to be provided by the computer. An arifical tree was brought out of storage and assembled. Some one in command must had decided that a Christmas tree might be handy.

Everyone was invited…but sadly, that meant that the departments on the ship would be staffed by junior officers, working a 12 hour shift

The following officers were assigned to the bridge:

Petty Officer Thomas Barrow was assigned to comms.

Crewman Mary Crawley would be at the science station.

Crewman Charles Carson would fill in at the tactical station.

And Petty Officer Tom Branson would man the engineering console.

That left the helm and command.

Lieutenant Josh Randall volunteered for those areas.

At 1800 hours, the night shift arrived and took their places. Instead of sitting in the command chair, Randall choose to sit at the helm.

The ship was on course, navigating through an area of space, not far from Earth. Their course led them through an area where no inhabited were located.

For the others, this was the first time that they have had bridge duty. Randall was the helmsman, so he was here daily.

The shift started smoothly. Randall only had to make minor course corrections.

PO Barrow reported that a series of transmissions were being received from Starfleet Command, none marked “urgent”. “Download them to the computer. The captain will review those when he takes command.” Randall ordered.

Later, Crewman Carson reported that a standard scan showed no ships or objects in their area. Randall made a note in the ship’s log.

PO Branson reported that engineering reported that a conduit needed to be replaced in main engineering. Randall noted it in the log.

About 2345 hours, crewman Crawley detected a comet in their area. Starfleet records said that there was no record of this comet.

Randall altered course and headed to the comet. He logged everything in the ship’s log’s.

When they arrived at the comet, it was 3 minutes to midnight. “Attention all hands, this is Lieutenant Randall on the bridge. If you look out the port side, you will see a comet we detected. Merry Christmas.”