Corbomite

In the fictional Star Trek universe, as well as the fictional TradeWars 2002 universe, corbomite is a material designed to explode and cause damage over a wide radius when the ship carrying it is destroyed. Thus, it acts as a deterrent to aggression, since an attacker would essentially be committing suicide. There is no way of knowing whether a ship is actually carrying corbomite; the mere possibility is often deterrent enough.

Within the fictional Star Trek universe, "Corbomite" was itself a fictional substance: Captain James T. Kirk came up with the ruse to bluff an alien starship into not firing on the Enterprise. Quark would later unsuccessfully attempt to use the same bluff in the 24th century.