Trope-a-Day: Escape Pod

Escape Pod: Averted.  Fusion reactors don’t explode, they fizzle.  Antimatter reactors (well, really, the storage cryocels) do explode, but in general, there’s no way you’re going to get away from them fast enough in order to matter.  And unless you’re in orbit around a planet or co-orbiting with a habitat cluster (in which case there are almost certainly plenty of people around with small craft anyway), you’re not going to be able to get anywhere with the delta-v that can be packed into an escape pod, so you might as well stay with the hulk of your ship, however shot up it is and whatever resources it represents.  Escape pods are (mostly) pointless.

And even in the military scenario when you want to get to a different ship, Dodge for the getting out of, that’s what mindcasting is for.