First person, present tense, speculative narration... YES, please do stick with this. It has a great Tales from the Afternow feel to it. (Not sure how familiar you are with SKTFM.) As for the length, it's not really that important. On the contrary, if it ends up growing into ten chapters, even better. And the reader can guess most of the answers to their questions based on the thoughts of the narrator.

Oh, and as for HIVE, hehehehe, honestly this last HF happened without any of the usual crap, it was amazing. Of course the biggest change took place more than a year ago, when we were forced to truly seize our independence. Who knows, not being dependent on a company that slows you down or tries to control you may ultimately have been the reason why this last fork went so smoothly.