Self-sealing stem bolts were, as their name suggested, stem bolts that sealed themselves. The field of application of the self-sealing stem bolts was unclear; even Miles O'Brien, the chief of operations on Deep Space 9, was unaware of their exact use, having spent most of his career not even having seen one. (DS9: "Progress")
In 2369, Jake Sisko and Nog traded five thousand wrappages of Cardassian yamok sauce for a hundred gross self-sealing stem bolts, to a Lissepian freighter captain. Jake and Nog opened communications with the original buyer of the stem bolts, under the name "The Noh-Jay Consortium", but eventually settled with a trade of seven tessipates of land on Bajor. Nog was skeptical and preferred to stick to the bolts; Jake told Nog that, on land, one can build things, to which Nog replied that nothing could be built without bolts. Nog and Jake then made a deal with Quark to sell the land to a Bajoran government agency. (DS9: "Progress")
In 2371, an opportunity presented itself to Quark to get rid of a 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 begin triple production of reverse-ratcheting routing planers. Emi, however, was told by Grand Nagus Zek where she could get the bolts at wholesale, for a much-reduced price. (DS9: "Prophet Motive")
While in captivity by the Jem'Hadar, Julian Bashir suggested a discovered escape tool might be either a self-sealing stem bolt or a reverse ratcheting router. (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")
In late 2375, O'Brien explained his reasons to Dr. Bashir for taking a teaching post at Starfleet Academy, quipping, "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")
External link
- Self-sealing stembolt at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works