The pirate ships are in orbit of the space station, just a few kilometers out.  If you get aboard one ship and save it, it'll probably be able to survive two adjacent plasma drive explosions with major damage.  (you'll want to find a shelter aboard ship, though.  By default, all PCs in a destroyed vessel survive if the ship is hulked, but have to spend a fate point to get to an escape pod or miraculously surviving compartment if the plasma drive or warp drive explodes)<br/><br/>As for disabling the reactor explosion, if it was triggered from the bridge, then you'll just have to get to the bridge and turn off the self destruct buton.  (though on a chaos ship, the button might be something unpleasant)  If the reactor was saboaged from the engine room, you'll have to reverse the sabotage there, which could be dangerous.