Escape Pod
In starship classification, an escape pod or life pod or evacuation pod is a small capsule found aboard most starships that are used in the event that the ship is damaged and pending destruction. Starfleet vessels have enough escape pods to evacuate the entire crew and any non-Starfleet personnel.
Some Klingon starships lack escape pods, although most classes do have them. (ENT: "Sleeping Dogs", "Bounty"; DS9: "Penumbra")
Noted Uses[edit]
When the USS Enterprise -E traveled back in time to the year 2063, the crew used the ship's escape pods to leave the Borg-occupied ship. (Star Trek: First Contact)
Escape pods, also known as rescue pods, of the Odin were capable of traveling at warp 1 for extended periods. It took them 5 months and 14 days to reach the nearest inhabited planet Angel I in 2357. (TNG: "Angel One")
In 2366, the Zalkonian known as "John Doe" used a Zalkonian vessel to escape prosecution for his slow transformation to a higher being. When the ship was attacked, "John Doe" used an escape pod to leave the ship before it was destroyed. (TNG: "Transfigurations")
Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko used an escape pod during the Battle of Wolf 359 to escape from the doomed USS Saratoga. (DS9: "Emissary")
In the year 2367, the crew members of the Arcos used escape pods when they abandoned the ship above Turkana IV. (TNG: "Legacy")
Ensign Sito Jaxa was reportedly killed in a Federation evacuation pod, when she tried to return to the USS Enterprise-D after her mission, to bring back the Cardassian Joret Dal, who previously came aboard the ship in an escape pod, succeeded. (TNG: "Lower Decks")
On Stardate 46383, the Bajoran transport Ibudan was on had a lifeboat drill. (DS9: "A Man Alone")
Following a Dominion attack and being boarded by the Jem'Hadar, Commander Benjamin Sisko gave the order for the crew to abandon the USS Defiant using escape pods. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
Captain Lisa Cusak and Commander Gatsby left the USS Olympia in an escape pod. However, it was torn open on impact and Gatsby was killed. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")
Several crewmembers of the USS Honshu used escaped pods to leave the ship when it was being attacked by Cardassian forces. At least three escape pods detached from the Honshu before its destruction. An escape pod also landed on a planet. (DS9: "Waltz")
When the IKS Koraga was about to be destroyed by the Dominion in 2375, Worf left the ship in an escape pod. However, it drifted into the Badlands. The IKS Rotarran recovered six escape pods from the Koraga. (DS9: "Penumbra", "Strange Bedfellows")
In 2377, while trying to fend off a Quarren attack, the Doctor came up with a ingenious plan to mask the life signs of the remaining crew in the Briefing room, and ejecting two escape pods which actually contained photon torpedoes. When the Quarren ship's tractor beamed them in, they were detonated, and the Quarren ships were disabled. (VOY: "Workforce, Part II")
