Amateur in Chancery

"Amateur in Chancery" by George O. Smith is a science fiction story that revolves around a critical mission to rescue a scientist stranded and deteriorating on Venus. When Holly succumbs to exposure from Venus's treacherous atmosphere after a Venus exploration project takes turn for the worst, a computer programmer named Tom is asked to help. The story examines the difficult task of communicating with an alien species, the Venusians, in this case Harla, who holds the secret to saving Holly's life. The Earth team realize the challenges with sharing ideas with each other when the alien lacks any terrestrial references. Tom must use a combination of feelings, reasoning, and intuition to overcome Harla's alien understanding of seemingly simple concepts in an edge-of-your-seat attempt to push the right button to bring Holly home.