By 2375, the Enterprise-E entered an area of space known as the Briar Patch, where it eventually came under fire by Son'a ships. In a maneuver called the Riker Maneuver, Riker, who was in command at the time, ejected the warp core in combination with the use of metreon gas in the Briar Patch to prevent the ship from being destroyed by a subspace tear the Son'a had created as a weapon.