Title: Looking Through Lace
Author: Ruth Nestvold (Ruth Nestvold)
Price: FREE
Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (10)
As the only woman on the first contact team, xenolinguist Toni Donato expected her assignment on Christmas would be to analyze the secret women’s language — but then the chief linguist begins to sabotage her work. What is behind it? Why do the men and women have separate languages in the first place? What Toni learns turns everything she thought they knew on its head.

Originally published in Asimov’s in 2003, "Looking Through Lace" was a finalist for the Tiptree and Sturgeon…