What a mess of obscured motivations. What Shallana was there for, what Murv was up to, Brack's intentions, who was suspicious of who...the only question is, how _did_ he manage to tap the whales if they wouldn't stay for him? There's nothing about tranking them. Maybe other fishmen were also working with him? Unlikely. A hole in the story. Still, it's an interesting setting and (what we see of it) an interesting universe. It gets silly when everybody is heroically knocking each other out, but overall not a bad story. ( )