Halfway Human

Val is your average alien cultures expert in an intergalactic information society. Being a proper scientist, she never saw a live alien and only sorts through data available on the information network, hoping to discover something new that she could sell back into the network. That, however, suddenly changes when Val meets Tedla - an asexual alien from a faraway planet of Gammadis.

Tedla has just tried to kill itself and is in a hospital. It appears to have gone through quite an ordeal, and on a sudden impulse, Val decides to take it home. To heal it, of course - it is only because the opportunity presents itself that Val interviews Tedla and saves the interviews, you never know who might want to buy the material.

Very soon, other people express their extreme interest in Tedla. As the things are turning out, Tedla is not exactly an insignificant alien nobody would miss ... and as Val learns more and more, she finds herself torn between the prospects for successful carrier and plain compassion for Tedla ...