AKOREM DISAPPEARS IN WORMHOLE. SISKO RECLAIMS POSITION AS EMISSARY

(Bajoran poet, Akorem was thought to be

deceased for over two hundred years before his resuce from the wormhole.)

The latest Bajoran religious crisis has come to a close as Commander Sisko reclaimed his place as Emissary to the prophets and revered figure to the Bajoran people. The question considering who the rightful emissary was which have persisted since the poet, Akorem, was found in the wormhole has finally put to rest with his disappearance. Commander Sisko and he journeyed into the wormhole to resolve their dispute over the prophets will by asking the prophets themselves, who are believed to reside in the celestial temple there.

When Akorem first arrived on the station and declared that the prophets had chosen him as their emissary, Commander Sisko offered no objection and conceded the position to the poet from over a hundred years in the past. The struggle between them began when Akorem advocated a return to the D'Jarra system, a move that not only would set Bajoran progress back to a period before the Cardassian occupation but would also render their application to join the Federation moot but was supported by Bajoran religious leadership, including Kai Winn. The Bajoran people followed their relgious leadership as usual and Bajorans throughout the station were considering new lives more appropriate to their D'Jarra. Lower class Bajorans gave up seats to higher class Bajorans at local bars, something which conflicts with the Bajorans' sense of egaligatrainism that has developed after the occupation Neither the Federation's strict adherence to a rule against discriminatory caste systems or the Bajorans' allegiance to the Emissary would be swayed. The people were looking at either a Bajor without the Federation or without the Emissary.

Commander Sisko protested the return to the old ways, claiming they were not right for Bajor or its people at this point in history. The two decided to seek the prophets in the celestial temple and ask the prophets which path was correct for Bajor. According to Commander Sisko, the prophets determined that he was the Emissary, a distinction he has spent much of his career avoiding and that Akorem chose to return to his own time and be with his wife again. The people of Bajor, particularly those on this station, embraced Sisko as the Emissary once again and abandoned the pursuit to return to the old caste system.