In the Control Tower

A precision draftsman named Dewforth commutes through a ruined, industrial city and becomes fixated on a huge, hovering rectangular structure he cannot fully perceive. His day job in windowless rooms at Components, Inc. consists of intricate schematic tracings whose purpose and products are shrouded by rumor, destruction, and strict workplace secrecy. Isolated by compartmentalized labor and enforced mistrust, he keeps his curiosity private and gives the mysterious object a name as a way to impose order. The story traces urban decay, bureaucratic alienation, and the human need to name and understand an inscrutable technological presence.