Rather nice short story, Brian, but IMO far too many 'fuckings' sprinkled gratuously throughout. Granted that use of the FUCK word is de rigeur emblematic of today's younger generation for accenting statements (ditto for 'like', 'um, 'ah', and other 'word-fillers', etc.), a bit more erudition and a bit less reliance on pop-verbal scatology would turn this into a great SciFi yarn. Pity that only those who are well-edimacated in that 'Evil Western Cultural' manner we all love to hate would appreciate it for its post-cleaned-up merits then, were you to do so... Not trying to be trollish here, Brian. Just 7th decade of life objective. It's REALLY a great story.

[BTW, I am a life-long Sci-Fi fan, having cut my baby teeth on California Sci_Fi 'fandom' back in the late 50s...yeah, one of those 'raised on Heinlein, Asimov and Arthur C. Cark' antedivulians. These days, SciFi sould more aptyly be called 'social fiction', since our society is increasingly starting to resemble a bizarre SciFi story, nes c'est pas? That said, I was NEVER a 'Trekkie', but I DID think Borg 7of9 had great tits! I wrote her a fan letter pointing (no pun imntended) this out from the confines of my fighter squadron hanger, but strangely never heard back from her...! Go figure. She was a LOT more attractive than the Tardigrades!

PS: You need to develop this writing. It could end up as a screenplay in Horrorwood, some day! Serjusly!