The Children's Tongue

The aliens have been here thirty years — no ships, no bodies, only a language, one that only children under twelve can learn and that all of them lose at adulthood. Each generation is conscripted as humanity's interpreters, then grows up, goes silent, and is returned to ordinary life. Former interpreter Lin Wanzhao's daughter has reached the age; this time she is both the mother and a party to a contract she can no longer remember. Complete.