Corbomite Corbomite was an imaginary substance invented by Captain James T . Kirk as a bluff against attack . Describing it as " a material , and a device , which prevents attack on us " , Kirk used the corbomite bluff on at least two occasions . In 2266 , the was captured by a vessel of the First Federation , Balok ' s massive " Fesarius " . Threatened with imminent destruction , Kirk seized upon the chance comments of Dr . McCoy and Spock for inspiration . On - the - fly , he " explained " the nature of corbomite to his opponent : that it reacts to any destructive energy that touches a Federation vessel , creating a reverse reaction that destroys the attacker . He went on to advise Balok that since the introduction of corbomite more than two centuries ago , no attacking vessel had survived the attempt . The bluff was successful , ultimately revealing Balok ' s power and belligerence were similar exaggerations . ( ) A year later , Kirk and his senior officer s were stricken with a hyper - aging radiation sickness , forcing the inexperienced Commodore Stocker to take command . Stocker brought the " Enterprise " into dire peril by ordering the starship into the Romulan Neutral Zone , inviting Romulan attack . By the time Kirk was cured , the starship was under fire from up to ten . Kirk resorted to his corbomite bluff by sending a message to Starfleet in a broken code , warning that activation of the " corbomite device " would destroy the " Enterprise " and all matter within 200 , 000 kilometer s , leaving behind a " dead zone " to be avoided for the next four years . The Romulans fled the area , allowing the " Enterprise " to escape . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Corbomite wasn ' t featured in the first draft outline of " The Corbomite Maneuver " ( when the episode had the working title " Danger Zone " ) . It was first referred to in the second draft of the episode ' s story outline , in which it was specifically said to be a substance that had been incorporated into the " Enterprise " when the ship had been made . Its detonation was said to cause a supernova and its uses purportedly included battle scenarios . When Balok left the " Enterprise " , the question of whether the substance actually existed was unclear to him . Apocrypha . Page 17 of the " Star Fleet Medical Reference Manual " describes corbomite as being an actual element ( presumably a radioactive one ) with the chemical symbol of Ct , an atomic mass of 361 for its most stable isotope , and an atomic number of 140 , which Federation scientists had discovered on Starbase 27 in 2262 . The corbomite reflector was a special ability of ships in the " " and the " " PC games . It reflected enemy projectiles back to their point of origin , such as another ship and / or a torpedo turret or its equivalent , such as Romulan and Klingon plasma turrets . It is mentioned in - game as having been designed by Geordi La Forge , inspired by Kirk ' s famous bluff . The alternate reality - set novel " The Assassination Game " portrays as having used a version of this bluff against Finnegan to avoid being " killed " by the latter in the aforementioned game . He claims to have accidentally made corbomite by spilling chemicals in the chemistry lab . According the Kirk , the substance absorbs the energy of anything that comes in contact with it and returns it several thousand or million times over . In addition , the amount he had created would supposedly destroy everything within ten kilometer s of the area and create a dead zone for four year s . The bluff is successful , but later , Finnegan confronts Kirk after having looked up corbomite and found that it didn ' t exist . Kirk tries ( and fails ) to convince Finnegan that his exochemistry teacher was the source of the bad intel .