The Enormous Word

Under an occupying force that renders engines useless and subjects people to nightly unconsciousness, a desperate human network refines a tiny capsule of uranium as a potential counterweapon. Winston Eberly risks transporting the element across exposed terrain, is seized by blue-skinned invaders, and, to prevent their access, swallows the capsule, imperiling himself. Captured and interrogated aboard an alien ship, he endures physical and linguistic domination while the larger human effort to build a bomb and find ways to deliver it continues. The narrative focuses on improvised resistance, individual sacrifice, and the strain of survival when technology and autonomy have been stripped away.