Corbomite

Corbomite was an imaginary substance that was invented by Captain James T. Kirk as a means of bluffing his way out of an enemy attack.

Kirk first devised corbomite in 2266 when the USS Enterprise encountered the First Federation starship, Fesarius. In order to escape destruction by Commander Balok, Kirk expained that corbomite was a material that was placed on the hull of a Federation starship and would create an equally destructive force, that was perpetrated on the vessel. Commander Balok was convinced by Kirk's bluff and he called off the destruction of the Enterprise. (TOS episode: "The Corbomite Maneuver").

In 2267, Kirk used the corbomite bluff in order to escape from the Romulan Neutral Zone and several Romulan warships, after Commodore George Stocker took the Enterprise into the zone as a shortcut to Starbase 10. The bluff also worked on the Romulans and the Enterprise escaped destruction. (TOS episode: "The Deadly Years").

In the 2370s, Lieutenant Commanders' Geordi La Forge and Data were working on developing a shield system that would repel enemy weapons and redirect them to the attacking vessel. This system became known as the Corbomite reflector and by 2376, the device was installed aboard the USS Enterprise-E and several other Sovereign-class starships. (TNG games: Star Trek: Armada and Star Trek: Armada II).

Connections

• Corbomite article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.