A self-sealing stem bolt
Self-sealing stem bolts in their packaging
Self-sealing stem bolts as suggested by their name are stem bolts that seal themselves. The field of application of the self-sealing stem bolts is unclear; even Miles O'Brien, the Chief of Operations of Deep Space 9 was unaware of their exact use. (DS9: "Progress")
In 2369, Jake Sisko and Nog traded 5,000 wrappages of Cardassian yamok sauce for 100 gross self-sealing stem bolts, to a Lissepian freighter captain. (DS9: "Progress")
In 2371, an opportunity presented itself to Quark to get rid of the stash of self-sealing stem bolts sitting in Cargo Bay 11. He offered them to a wealthy prospective buyer named Emi for ten bars of gold-pressed latinum. Emi claimed that with the stem bolts, her family would be able to triple production of reverse-ratcheting routing planers. (DS9: "Prophet Motive")
While in captivity by the Jem'Hadar, Bashir suggested a discovered escape tool might be either a self-sealing stem bolt or a reverse ratcheting router. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")
When the Defiant returned from escorting a convoy, Worf complained that warriors should be doing "great deeds" and not guarding "shipments of stem bolts". (DS9: "Image in the Sand")
In late 2375, O'Brien explained his reasons to Dr. Bashir for taking a teaching post at Starfleet Academy, he quipped "somebody has to teach you officers the difference between a warp matrix flux capacitor and a self-sealing stem bolt" (DS9: "What You Leave Behind").
See also
Background information
Whenever something is (seemingly) useless, a metaphor or simile that includes self-sealing stem bolts might be in order. They seem to be a satire of Trek's own technobabble. They are also a sort of MacGuffin device, in that they are something that plays a role in advancing a story, but their nature is a mystery and they bear little to no relevance to the situation they are involved in. More precicely one might say they are the Widget of the 24th century
A prop self-sealing stem bolt was sold at the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction. It was Lot #418 and sold for US$2,040, after being estimated to go for only 200 to 300 dollars. [1]
External link
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