The Fishing, You Know It Never Goes Well

Noma knew Alfreda well enough to see her preening, just a little. The older children she knew were interested in more than fishing. Noma had learned to speak whale for a government that no longer existed. Her body modifications became essential for negotiating the whale's mathematical language of waves and currents,. When her services were no longer required, Noma had retreated to the coast. Now she mediated yearly trade agreements between migrating whale clans and a few small villages that depended on access to the sea.