--== Begin Log ==-- [Starfleet Command, Earth] Harper returned to her office after speaking with Admiral Lara Arn concerning the Marduk situation, and briefly read over the information that had been supplied to her. It wasn't much more than what Captain Ripley had told her, but there were a few pieces of information that she thought the Captain, and Colonel Cole, would find helpful. She activated her computer console and quickly gathered some information from the Federation database, scratching it down on a seperate PADD. Evelyn shook her head to herself. She knew that Starfleet was involved in a number of highly secretive projects, but something about Einhoften and the re-education of Jem'Hadar didn't sit well with her, and she could tell it hadn't gone over well with Captain Ripley. The whole premise, while simple, was very dangerous and risky given who they were dealing with. Jem'Hadar were engineered to be warriors, instilled with loyalty to the Dominion from birth. Hell, it was practically programmed into them. And Starfleet had been trying to revert that conditioning with conditioning of their own. She wondered how they did it, but could find nothing of pertaining to it in the information Arn had provided her. "Something wrong?" Harper looked up from the PADD to see Commander Nicholai Ginovaef standing in her doorway. "Come in and close the door," Harper said, and Nicholai did as such. He took a seat opposite her and leaned back. "What's up?" "Marduk," Harper said. The Commander had as high a security clearance as Harper did, so she was free to discuss whatever she liked with him. It had been that way since he had been assigned to her as a body guard during the situation with the Avian nei'rrh. He had become a lot more than that over the years he had been by her side. She sometimes wondered if the Intelligence Officer wanted to be elsewhere, out in the field, but he had always chosen to come with her from posting to posting, and she was glad for that. He was her most valued aide, if that was a term she could use for him. He was a lot more than that. The shared quite a bit, including a similar past. He had been SSS as well. "Marduk?" he asked. Harper explained to him the situation with the Marduk, and how she had become aware of it. "How... interesting," he said after a moment. "You think Delgado has something to do with it?" "Probably," Harper said. "But what pie doesn't he have his fingers in?" she asked. Nicholai didn't like him either, more so than Harper and Arn even. Harper could sense it though Ginovaef had never said anything about it. He usually kept that type of thing to himself. "True. What are you going to do with the information Admiral Arn provided you with?" "I can't give out the information to anyone who doesn't have the proper security clearance," she said. "But there are ways around that," she said, smiling. "I'm going to contact Ripley and give her something to work with." Nicholai nodded, and Harper turned to the computer monitor on her desk. "Computer, open a secure channel to SSF Command, Starbase Bragg." The computer did as it was told, and the face a young lieutenant from Bragg's operations center appeared on the screen. Harper requested to speak to Ripley, and she was put through several seconds later. Before she spoke, Harper activated an encryption algorithm that would keep their conversation strictly between them. "Captain, were you able to find anything out?" Ripley asked when she saw that the comm. channel was encrypted. "Somewhat," Harper said. "The reason SSF Command wasn't provided with all the information concerning Einhoften is because Admiral Delgado from Fleet Operations saw to it. It's highly classified, and he wouldn't authorize lowering the security clearance very much, for whatever reason. I wasn't told about the situation because Delgado wanted to keep a tight lid on it, and told only those who were required to know, Admiral Arin among them." Ripley nodded but didn't say anything. That much made sense, though why the Admiral wouldn't want to lower the security clearance in order to provide the SSF with more information that would be vital to getting a handle on the situation was beyond her, and she could see Harper felt the same way. "At any rate, I was able to obtain some information about the Einhoften project," Harper said, continuing on. "It isn't much more than you told me to be honest, but it's above your security rating, and above Colonel Cole's as well." "I see..." Ripley said. "I'm sorry, Captain, I wish I could have been more help." "It's not a problem, General," Ripley said. "I rather suspected something like this. Thanks for your help." "Oh, one last thing before you go, Dana," Harper said. "Tendari, Archon, Tarod, Cestus, Deiso, Okisi. Take care, Captain, and keep in touch." Harper reached over and cut the transmission. Nicholai arched an eyebrow and Harper smiled. "Names of the systems that contain planets where the re-educated Jem'Hadar have been released. I couldn't give her the planet names, but the PADD only mentioned specifics, it didn't contain the system information, therefore it isn't classified." "Ahh, it all becomes clear," Ginovaef said. "Let's just hope Ripley can figure it out." --== End Log ==-- Major General Evelyn Harper Command Staff Officer Starfleet Command