Free Astral by Viola Grace Page A

my wishes and dreams like everyone else in the universe.”
    “Fair enough. I will contact you again when I have more details. Do you have the records for your current assignment?”
    “I do. I am heading to the negotiations in a few minutes.”
    “Don’t forget to do a systems check.”
    She smiled. “Yes, Refoal. I will. Good evening to you.”
    She disconnected her com connection and stretched. She tried a few moves that she had learning in Citadel training and when her limbs were loose and relaxed, she wandered toward her dispatch centre.
    She locked the door behind herself and lit up the interior of the centre. As the lights cascaded over her support chair, she opened the vents in her suit to allow for the implants.
    Humming to herself, she hooked up her life support. Dina was preparing for her mission to the surface and she needed all the fluids she could get.
    Her holographic fish checked on her and flipped its fins. She smiled at him like she always did. “Hello, Fish. You seem especially red today.”
    The fish did fancy flips around her and she quickly plugged herself in.
    Fish was the interface for her ship’s systems and as long as he was swimming happily, she had nothing to worry about.
    Dina settled in her chair and breathed deeply. The chronometer over her head counted down to the moment of her appointment.
    “Dim the lights.”
    The lights faded to a subtle illumination and Dina let her mind separate from her body.
    Dina floated down toward the spinning orb beneath the station. The Qua’ak were trying to make a truce with the Qua’ar, their neighbours to the north. Yeshkin was an Alliance world, but the gasses that covered the planet were too corrosive for a standard Negotiator, so they had to call in a specialist.
    With nineteen languages in her mind at any given time, Dina was the perfect choice for the assignment of hostile-planet mediator. Her ability to keep her mind in a cohesive column as well as the centre’s systems provided her with the ultimate in telepresence. She could be in two places at the same time and never suffer from the environment she was visiting.
    Keeping a holographic representation was where she needed the help of her specialized systems. Other than needing a technological boost, her astral projection was honed to a fine science.
    She bobbed in the thick, orangey gaseous layer next to the two representatives. The negotiations for a truce had taken hours longer than she had anticipated, but Shemmo and Lallar were finally in agreement as to the terms of the truce.
    “Please sign the documents in front of you.” She kept her gaze on the document as they pressed it flat to the stone and pressed their palms to it. She twirled her fingers and the attendant reversed the document for the secondary signatures.
    When they had seared their palms to the document, the attendant ripped it in two, in Yeshkin fashion.
    “With this document signed, you shall each take a half and return to your people. Only when the other half is surrendered gratefully, eagerly and without malice or danger can this agreement be undone. From now on, you will share the bounty of the gas fish as well as the oil of the crawling carp. A trade agreement has been reached and ratified here today. I have filed the recording with the Alliance, so it is locked in for no less than nine generations. After that, you may renegotiate the details.”
    “Thank you, Mediator. Your presence here has helped diffuse a tense situation.” Shemmo bowed.
    “Our thanks as well. Things were getting tense in both our countries.” Lallar bowed as well, his heavy gills working to breathe the caustic atmosphere.
    She bowed in return. “Contact me if you have any further need. I will be hooked to your station for the next five days.”
    Dina sat up, gasping with her limbs trembling. Her body did not take to extended absences, but there was no way of telling time on Yeshkin. Days and nights were all blended together in that strange