I don't own Babylon 5.
X
Nightwatch.
After Mr Welles walked out of her quarters, Susan sighed with relief and poured herself some fresh tea from her pot into her cup, and she relaxed on the sofa. She stretched herself like a cat, performing a few yoga and pilates moves to help herself relax and relieve herself of the tension which had come from the hours of her last shift.
It didn't work, and that worried her. Susan had found since she had joined Earthforce and her stress levels were quite high, she had adopted Pilates and Yoga into her daily routine to help her relax. It was better than dying from a heart attack. But ever since Sheridan had begun teaching her the 'fine art of diplomacy' although she still cringed at the things she had said and done during that mess with the Drazi and their stupid sashes of green and purple, her diplomatic training had only added to the strain despite it really helping improve her knowledge and her repertoire, Susan had needed to adopt a greater repertoire of pilates and yoga moves to help relieve her stress. That and the tea.
The fact it wasn't helping following Well's visit was worrying, but so too was Nightwatch. Susan grimaced as she remembered telling the Nightwatch official from the Ministry of Peace that she had been aware of the Nightwatch for a while now, and what she had learnt and what she had seen had begun to worry her.
Okay, some of the things she might have seen as exaggerations. But if there was one thing you learnt on a station like Babylon 5 for some weird reason she had never been able to work out in all the time she had served on the station during her tour of duty here, it was you learnt quickly not everything and everyone was what they seemed. Her old friend and predecessor, Laurel Takashima, had told her that aspects of Babylon 5 came from the various differences between the different alien races, and encouraged Susan to adapt and to notice everything. It was advice she had taken religiously to her boobs.
Every alien who came to Babylon 5 had their own differences, their own rivalries. Some of the ambassadors openly or secretly spied on each other - Londo and G'Kar had been major examples of that, although the hostility had only increased, thanks to the Centauri's war against the Narns in the last year, but once she had learnt her lessons, Susan had found she couldn't go one day without listening closely and wondering to herself if there was a second story to the one she had heard.
It even extended to how she looked at the news she received from Earth, and from what she was hearing she was glad she had picked those lessons up, especially after receiving details about the web of intrigue surrounding the Nightwatch, and the Ministry of Peace.
Susan's grimace and frown only increased as she reflected on the things the Ministry of Peace was tasked with; when she had heard the news from her friends and contacts from Earth and the other colonies, her concerns and her fears had only increased; Susan knew many of those fears were shared by Sheridan and Garibaldi, who both had friends and contacts with Earth themselves. Sheridan was still relatively new to Babylon 5, but he had learnt quickly not everything was as it appeared, but her old friend and CO were sharp and smart; more than once Susan had caught Sheridan's eye whenever he spotted one of those Nightwatch and Ministry of Peace posters plastered all over the station.
Sheridan had not been happy, but he lacked the power or authority to stop Nightwatch. Garibaldi himself was likely checking everything about Nightwatch through his own contacts and sources, who heard more than Susan's own sources.
But those posters were really telling.
Some of them were worrying.
"TRAITORS CAN'T HIDE."
The implications of that poster were truly worrying, and Susan had begun to become frightened - not that she would admit it - of what was happening, what was really happening on Earth and the other colonies. Things back home had been changing for a long time ever since the end of the Earth-Minbari War, and before his death President Santiago was being attacked on all sides by xenophobic hotheads both in and out of Earth Central and the Senate itself, Earthforce was driving itself into the ground trying to discover new technologies and weapons so they would never find themselves fighting as they had at the Battle of the Line. But Susan had to wonder if Clark was another who thrived in the toxic environment, just like Ben-Zayne had.
But when she saw that poster and listened to what was coming out of the Ministry of Peace, Susan started to become frightened. Not at first, but as she had listened to what her contacts and friends back home were telling her about the Ministry of Peace, and what Nightwatch was doing as time passed, she became more worried.
On the outside, the Ministry of Peace was doing exactly what its name suggested. They printed and published little articles and leaflets about how Earth needed peace, and how to go about it.
Likewise, Nightwatch was just a more extensive version of the Neighbourhood Watch, only instead of a mere neighbourhood like the ones you got on Earth, Nightwatch seemed to cover entire cities and towns on Earth, with smaller groups to keep little areas under observation. Susan remembered hearing about the Nightwatch's formation. Surprise, surprise, there was not much there to describe what they were for. Some like Susan openly asked why they were being set up, and guesses had passed around for over a week over the channels.
Some of Susan's friends suspected Clark was trying to find out what ways everyone could find to make Earth's problems disappear. One or two of Susan's friends asked openly if the Nightwatch were actually something more sinister, and it was looking like they were right, because in the eyes of many the Nightwatch were sinister. At first, the Nightwatch's activities were relatively innocent. They just had their members walk around on patrol, and make reports on anything suspicious. In that regard, they were really no different to a good old-fashioned neighbourhood watch, but as time passed and their membership increased, Susan had heard stories of how the Nightwatch intimidated and beat up anyone who said something that wasn't in the best interests of Earth. Or some members likely just used it as a chance and an excuse to hurt anyone they didn't like. That made it so evil.
Even worse, Susan had heard stories of how the Nightwatch had been given the means and the skill to hack into citizens' private information, for security, the excuse went, but with that kind of power, the damage they could cause was almost incalculable.
She had even heard they advocated the same sick shit spouted by the Homeguard, but Nightwatch violently attacked the Homeguard for reasons that Susan knew made sense to someone, but she guessed it was because Homeguard were rabble-rousers who didn't fit in with Clark's vision.
Through the Ministry of Peace, Clark distributed a lot of anti-alien propaganda, much like the Homeguard had, but his methods were more direct and were more targeted than Homeguard, which just disdained anything alien from ideas to pieces of fruit.
Susan sipped her rapidly cooling tea, feeling herself relax, but she was still shaken from Welles's visit and she wondered just how far Nightwatch was going to go.
Well, what do you think?