The Field
From FEInfobase
Two debris fields exist in the Sol system, the first one lies between Pluto and Neptune it is a relatively small debris field which does little to hamper shipping in the area.
The second is known simply as "˜The Field", it is truly a sight to behold billions and billions of tones of wreckage from the Battle of Sol and other battles has been locked in to a ring which surrounds Sol's major approaches. The Field being a wondrous sight does little to detract from the dark horror which surrounds it.The three paths cleared in the field are the only authorized enter and exits points in the sol system.Any ship or object not using the paths are considered hostile and are immediately fired upon.
A report by Captain Geordi La Forge Commanding Officer of USS Challenger indicates that after 4 years of searching the Earth Defense Force has only managed to catalog 4% of the field. This alone gives some indication of the sheer magnitude of task he has been given to accomplish. The picture painted by Captain La Forge even bleaker when you consider the he has found thousands and thousands of Borg life signs in that 4% alone.
Starfleet is aware of the fact many Starfleet Officers may remain trapped within the field even today, notable rescues from the field have included Lieutenant Commander Kroe'nn and Lieutenant Jack Douglass Mathews formerly of the Starship Enterprise E.
At this time very few rescue attempts have been undertaken, due to the losses suffered by the fleet already from assimilation attempts by the Borg still active within the debris field. Starfleet Scientists have theorized that the remaining Borg are attempting to assimilate anything remaining in the field, in an effort to create a new collective. Further more they believe the Borg in the field are unaffected by the Dominion Pathogen, having lost contact with the collective before the pathogen was introduced.
Traversing the debris field is only possible by using one of three conduits which have been created, at anyone time two of the conduits are in use with a third being overhauled and reinforced by Starfleet Corps of Engineers staff. Painful lessons were learned quickly after the formation of The Field, USS Annapolis and a convoy of food stuffs were heading out from Earth to the rim. The entire convoy was only a third of the way through the conduit when the force field emitters failed, leaving the flotilla open to the debris. It only took moments for grapple systems to begin pulling the ships in to the debris field, before Starfleet could mobilize a single ship all 5 vessels were pulled in to the field.
The field is relatively harmless around the edges, the closer you get to the core the more dangerous it becomes. On numerous occasions Starfleet have sent unmanned probes through the field in an attempt to catalog it, no probe has ever made it more than a million meters inside the field. It would be virtual suicide for anyone to try.