The Story of the Burning Transwarp Drive Plug

    For any of you that know the Magellan mission Guardians, you probably are familiar with the 'transwarp coil' that is really just a big wooden tube and base with aqua tube lights around it.
    Well, one day, I was on an Odyssey flight just hanging around while the crew was briefing.  The Magellan was doing a 5-hour mission, Guardians, and were getting ready to do their Transwarp away mission.
    Connor, dressed as the Guardian, saw me hanging around and recruited me to come and pull the plug on the Transwarp Coil.  We didn't know exactly when the crew was coming so we turned on the Transwarp Coil and turned off the lights, so we could be ready if the crew came.
    After about 4 minutes or so I started to smell something.  It was a marshmallow-roasting sort of smell, but I just ignored it for the moment, supposing that the smell was coming from someone eating something or just one of those random scents that filters in from outside that you can't get rid of.   Then Connor asked me if I smelled something.  I said yes, and that I'd been smelling it for a few minutes now.  He stated that it smelled like something burning.   We then tried smelling in different directions around us, trying to find exactly where the scent was coming from.  Suddenly I realized that the plug to the Transwarp Coil I was holding was starting to get hot in my hands, hot enough that it hurt.  So, I bent down to smell the plug and the smell was definitely coming from it.  I told Connor in a bit of alarm that the smell was coming from the plug.  He rushed to turn on the lights and sure enough, there was a coil of smoke coming out of where the plug was connected and up into the air like a snake.  Connor and I stood in a state of shock for a moment.  We didn't know when the kids would be coming so Connor turned off the lights and ran to get Nicole.  Before he left he told me to disconnect the plug.  It was hard because he turned off the lights and the plug was so hot.  I finally found the plug.  I had to pull so hard to get them disconnected.  My hands hurt so bad after I had disconnected them.  I turned on the light and looked at them.  They were all red.
    Connor shortly arrived with Nicole and then Alex had to come and look at it.  Apparently some rubber from the portable outlet it was plugged into had melted on to the Transwarp Coil plug from us leaving it in for so long on so many away missions.  That explained why it was so hard to pull out.
    Everything ended happy.  Now we use the outlet in the wall instead of the portable one. The Odyssey crew finished briefing and my hands hurt the rest of the day.   The End.
 

Space Center Story - Emily and the Door

I was volunteering an Odyssey mission that Emily Perry (now Paxman) was flying. I don't know If any of you remember Carrick, but he was the other volunteer. I was up on the bridge answering questions with Carrick.  He decided to leave, but as he left he positioned the black door right in front of the transporter.  Emily, who always seems to be in a rush where ever she goes, came rushing through the transporter and smacked her nose right into  the side of the door, startling the Tactical and Sensors officers. She could tell I wanted to just laugh out loud right then and there and was trying my best to hold it all in. She simply said to me, "You didn't just see that."  Then she left.