The Borderland was a region of space several light-years wide lying between the Klingon Empire and the space dominated by the Orion Syndicate in the mid-22nd century. It was home to rogues of both powers and was noted as being unpredictable and dangerous.
The Verex system lay within the Borderland. Verex III was the site of an Orion-run slave processing station.
The Human Arik Soong visited the Borderland in the 2130s, where he made contact with the Orions and established a relationship with them to trade for goods and equipment for him and his Augments.
In 2154, two of those Augments, Malik and Saul, seized a Klingon bird-of-prey within the Borderland. Hunting them, the Earth starship Enterprise ventured into the Borderland on May 17. Shortly after, two Orion interceptors attacked and kidnapped nine of the Enterprise's crew. The Enterprise followed them to the Verex III processing station and rescued them from the Syndicate-run slave market there (ENT episode: "Borderland").