Read Online The Agathon: Book One by Colin Weldon - Free Book Online

just occurred was too confusing to combine with the urges of a clearly passionate attraction from a young officer, even if he was a handsome one. Her obvious blush responses were not lost on Chavel, as he made his way over to her father.
    She observed him as they shook hands and spoke. She began to sense the changes in the officer’s mind as the news was being broken. Grief and panic were old friends to Carrie and she didn’t need to sense emotions to recognise them but once her mind was open, it was hard to not to let them in from others. Chavel held himself with composure and strength, but inside his mind was in turmoil. The warm feelings she had sensed moments ago were gone. Shock released the floodgates of every feeling all at once and Carrie’s sensitivity to them was increasing on a daily basis. She had begun exercises in segmenting her thoughts from others, out of fear of having her own mind washed away in other people’s thoughts. It had become a terrifying thought that somehow her own consciousness could be washed away by thoughts of the other colonists. It was her father who had given her the idea.
    “Build a home for your thoughts,” he had told her one night when she couldn’t sleep. “Somewhere they can be safe. Build a house in your mind with impregnable walls. It will be your own fortress. That is where you go when others flood your thoughts. Don’t open the door, Carrie. Not to anyone. Not to anyone!” The fortress she had constructed in her mind had begun as a steel cube structure a thousand feet high, with a door ten feet thick, only accessible via a thin rope bridge over a bottomless ravine a mile wide. It had been a rather extreme version of what her father had been talking about, but it served its purpose well. The rope bridge could be retracted at will, leaving enemy thoughts no chance of getting across. She had even added weapons to the exterior. Large plasma cannons, each with their own compartment, scattered themselves along the walls of the cube. She had even test -fired them one night. It had been a spectacular show of force, as they tore through the fabric of her mind with power and ferocity. She had found it empowering and had been impressed at her ability to create such a devastating show of force, albeit an imaginary one. The years had changed her fortress, as she grew surer of what it had represented. The steel cube had been replaced with an ancient Earth castle, complete with moat and drawbridge.
    Her father and Chavel were deep in conversation. The lieutenant’s attention was focused on one of the screens, as her father gave instructions. She turned her attention back to her task.
    “Open comm to Doctor Meridian, please.” She spoke to the computer which responded in kind.
    “One moment, please.” There was a long pause, then a sleepy female voice answered.
    “Yeah... go ahead, hello?”
    “Doctor Meridian, this is Carrie. I apologise if I woke you.” A yawn.
    “Not at all, kiddo, how are you. What’s up? You discover the meaning of life yet?” Carrie smiled. She was very fond of the doctor and she of her.
    “Not yet, Chase. I think that just got a little harder, to be honest. Are you able to come to the observatory, please? Something has happened. My father and Doctor Tyrell are already here and it is important that you come right away.”
    Meridian didn’t hesitate in her response. “Of course, I’ll be there shortly. Let me just get dressed, sweetie. See you in a mo. Meridian out.”
    Carrie stood and walked over to the stations where her father and Chavel were talking. An air of urgency was beginning to fill the room. The kind that follows an accident or emergency, where the fight or flight responses kick in. Her senses were heightened as she approached the trio. She knew what the two officers were thinking, but Tyrell was different. She paused for a moment as their eyes briefly met. While his expression was one of sincere acknowledgement, she still couldn’t read