Venus Dreams Plastic Schemes

Abel and Linda Gilbrain dream of escaping their dead-end jobs at Abel's parents' recycling plant to buy a condemned mini-golf course called Planet Putt-Putt. Meanwhile, on Venus, an energy crisis threatens millions of lives. The solution: teleport Earth's abundant plastic waste to fuel Venusian reactors. The catch: Venusian "Avatar Operators" must neurally hijack human hosts to transmit coordinates-and the hosts die when the connection breaks.

Rookie operator Bevers Sonnof avatars into plant employee Etern Fletcher but immediately trips off a cliff due to coordination lag. His backup host, Ramon Ortiz, fares little better. Fellow cadet Thalia Ridel's unauthorized attempts to help result in two more deaths. The body count rises as Abel and Linda frantically hide corpses under lawn flamingos.

Veteran operators Moma and Mathezar Tommov permanently take over Abel's parents, transforming the angry, stressed Gilbrains into eerily efficient alien puppets. They secure the plastic coordinates, save Venus, and hire their oblivious son as a garbage truck driver.

Six months later, the alien-parents watch Jeopardy! while Abel whispers to Linda about his next get-rich scheme: alpaca farming.