being a story submitted for the Space Bats contest sponsored by The Archdruid Report
[Note: this post was the official submission in a last-minute screaming drive for a deadline. As such, it was left unmodified until the contest was concluded. I was delighted when the story was selected for inclusion in After Oil 3: The years of Rebirth, which is now in print from Founders House Press. However, the "live" development version of the story was moved to https://github.com/whblondeau/memoria-interna/blob/master/stories/the-borax-road-affair/the-borax-road-affair.md. ]
