The E.T. Guy

In 2266, Lois Kennedy works as an Intake Officer for DETI, where alien refugees arrive on Earth and are processed into new lives. Zir, a refugee from Teiss who works in the IT department, seems rude and hard to read whenever he deals with Lois, and she assumes he dislikes her.

Their strained workplace dynamic is complicated by cultural differences, alien courtship customs, and Lois’s limited understanding of Zir’s behavior. As they keep crossing paths at work, Lois begins to realize that his actions may mean something very different in his own culture than they do in hers.

As Lois and Zir slowly learn how to communicate, their relationship develops into a romance shaped by mutual adjustment, interspecies differences, and the larger pressures surrounding alien immigration and Earth’s response to refugees. The story follows their gradual move toward commitment and resolution.