Section 31

• Underground Federation intelligence agency
  • Originated with Earth Starfleet (ENT: "Affliction", "Divergence"; ENT Novel: The Good That Men Do)
  • Official justification for existence drawn from Article 14, Section 31 of the Starfleet Charter (as inherited from the same portion of Earth Starfleet's charter) (ENT: "Divergence"; ENT Novel: The Good That Men Do)
  • No association with Starfleet Intelligence
• Small cell-based organization
• Intermittent operations
  • Instituted only when necessary due to astropolitical conditions, dispersed and left fallow otherwise to prevent discovery
  • Three known eras of operation
  • First era: 2150 - 2165
    • First instituted as a successor to off-book security operations undergone by Matthew Harris in 2140s (ENT Novel: Patterns of Interference)
    • Incorporated by the AI Uraei, who proceeded to induct Harris and associates (ENT Novel: Patterns of Interference; S31 Novel: Control)
  • Second era: 2260s - 2300s
  • Third era: 2350s - 2386
    • Permanently decommissioned upon public revelation of existence 2386 (S31 Novel: Control)