ADDITIONAL DISCLAIMER: Babylon 5 is owned by Warner Brothers. I am making no money off writing and publishing this fic.

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Brother Traejen tabbed a control at his console at the equipment surrounding the Orb of Ages. "Twenty-one hundred hours report: Temperature twenty degrees Celsius. No electromagnetic, particle, or subspace emissions of any kind." He turned the recording off and stretched in his chair. "It's just an inert hunk of rock floating three feet off the ground. Again."

One other monk was in the room, manning a neighboring console. He said, "Well, the Prophets can't make it too easy for us, now can they?"

"That's a matter of opinion." Traejen looked over his shoulder at the room's massive doors. "Where's the night shift? They should be here by now."

"They're late again. Do you want me to-?"

"No. Anyone with even a foggy memory of what happened is probably praying that they don't lose what's left of their sanity, and I can't blame them."

"I, for one, am amazed the Emissary can endure crises like that on a daily basis. He must draw strength from the Prophets."

"Maybe, but don't let him hear you say it. I've heard that Captain Sisko accepts his role as the Emissary more than he did at first, but don't push your luck." Traejen stood up. "I want to head to the kitchen and see if there are any good leftovers."

"Should be. We were supposed to have takras stew tonight. Do you want me to set the equipment to auto-record?"

"No, I don't expect anything to happen before the night shift gets here. Let's go."

The two monks' footsteps echoed as they crossed the room and exited through the huge doors, closing them behind them.

White light flickered in the dark orb, in time to static coming from the consoles' speakers. Then the Route of Ages tesseract glowed bright and steady inside the black orb as a woman's voice echoed in the room:

"…channel is for official use only. State your business or change your frequency. I say again, this is Commander Susan Ivanova of Babylon 5. This channel is for official use only…"

THE END

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But what about Isolde? How does she know Harper? What will happen when she catches up to him? And what do Cylons have to do with it? Find out in "The Crucible"! Look for it in my profile with my stories.