The dense compound from which the warp coils in a starship's nacelles are made, generating the warp field when energised by plasma from the warp core.
Verterium cortenide is the substance used to build warp coils. When drive plasma is fed through the coils the material shifts energy into subspace, producing the field that carries a ship beyond light speed. It belongs to the technical background developed for The Next Generation.
On screen it is named in the Voyager episode Investigations, in which damage to the warp coils sends the ship in search of a supply at a nearby colony, a detour arranged by the traitor Michael Jonas.
It returns in the third season of Star Trek: Picard. In Seventeen Seconds a Changeling saboteur causes the USS Titan-A to vent verterium, leaving a trail that allows Vadic's ship, the Shrike, to follow it through the nebula.