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In DS9: Emissary, Commander Sisko's ship is damaged and incurs a warp core breach. In response, the ship's personnel are evacuated. However, not all of the crew (e.g.: Jennifer Sisko) was able to board escape vessels and presumably died in the explosion. If able, why did the crew not instead eject the Saratoga's warp core, and buy some time to evacuate and escape the Borg?

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    According to this answer the TNG crew tried to eject the warp core on 14 separate occasions, all unsuccessful, so clearly the system isn't as foolproof as might be hoped. Also (although this is speculation) there were 38 other Starfleet ships in the vicinity, and ejecting the warp core might have put them at risk.
    – Cadence
    Jan 24, 2019 at 6:34
  • I thought my answer to this one was reasonably comprehensive. Is there anything else you'd like to see before considering an acceptance?
    – Valorum
    Aug 9, 2019 at 23:51

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There are (as far as we're aware) only two ways to dump the core, by using the computerised control systems and by manually doing it from Engineering.


The ship taken a direct hit to the engineering deck from a Borg weapon. It's possible (in fact downright likely) that everyone in Engineering is dead.

TACTICAL OFFICER: Direct hit... decks one through four...

And we can see from the original screenplay that the Bridge control systems have stopped working properly.

COMPUTER VOICE: Warning. Damage to warp core. Containment failure in four minutes...

The Tactical Officer is still trying to make something on his console work...

SISKO: Let's get the civilians to the escape pods, Lieutenant...

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