Cleaning
Cleaning is a death sentence presented as maintenance of the outside sensors. Donald now realizes that each cleaning replenishes destructive nanos outside.
Story so far
People condemned to Cleaning are fitted with suits and sent outside to scrub the sensors, dry them, and apply protective films. Requesting to leave or suggesting life outside might be better can bring this punishment, as can other serious offenses. The condemned traditionally choose a final dinner, while the cleaning brings holidays, travel, celebrations, and a clearer view to residents inside.
Bernard Holland considered the visor’s false hopeful landscape the reason unwilling cleaners eventually performed the task. Juliette broke the remembered pattern by refusing to clean. The ritual had also been understood as a way to calm unrest, and reports of previous cleanings fabricated test results to justify fear of the outside.
The airlock uses pressurized gas to force air outward. Donald now realizes that cleanings also replenish the nanos outside, giving the recurring ritual a destructive function beyond sensor maintenance.
Role
A punitive sensor-maintenance ritual that also releases nanos into the outside world, according to Donald’s realization.
Relationships
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
Sources — 3 recorded facts, by chapter
- Reports from previous cleanings fabricated test results to justify fears of the outside.
- Cleanings use gas to pressurize the airlock and force air outward.
- Donald realizes that cleanings periodically replenish the nanos outside.