Time really does fly (in space), seeing as Cryptic's Star Trek Online MMO celebrates its third anniversary starting tomorrow, January 31st. As is customary for the genre, they're holding a big ol' party to commemorate the occasion, lasting until Valentine's Day, February 14th. But while the party (hosted by omnipotent alien Q) will give away fabulous prizes, the most fabulous of them all will be a pair of free starships.

After playing a single special anniversary mission, Federation players get an Ambassador-class starship, first shown in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Ambassador is the same model as the U.S.S. Enterprise-C (the one that came before Picard's Galaxy-class Enterprise-D). Klingon faction captains will score a Kamarag-class Battlecruiser, which is an original design.

This isn't the first time Cryptic's showered its players in spaceships. Last year Cryptic gave away a free Odyssey-class cruiser, which is the official model for the U.S.S. Enterprise-F (in the STO universe, at least), as well as a Klingon with an uncanny resemblance to a Starcraft Terran Battlecruiser. And during last year's holiday celebration, they gave away a ship used by Breen aliens (they look like Princess Leia's bounty hunter outfit). And on the microtransaction front they debut two new ships used by the Dominion, the big villains from Deep Space Nine. Dominion ships are pretty and purple-pink (in a badass way).

Check out all the ships in the gallery, as well as an anniversary infographic and trailer below. The inforgraphic contains many fun facts, such as the lifetime count of fluffy Tribbles found and raised by STO's players. 

How many? FOUR BILLION. That's a lot of furry pests clogging Jeffries Tubes the galaxy over.