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Cleaning Suit

Cleaning suits, once built with deliberately weak parts, are being sized and improved for the survivors’ proposed journey across the surface.

Story so far

Cleaning suits enclose their wearers in a one-piece body with integrated gloves, a carbon undersuit, back fastenings, and numbered pockets readable from above. Individually tailored, they are difficult to remove without assistance. Juliette questioned why generations of improvements never let cleaners travel farther. She suspected deliberate failure, and Supply’s substituted materials gave her a suit that lasted. She later found engineered weaknesses herself, including a gasket that split under her fingernails. Even an improved suit could not completely protect her against airlock fire.

Further experiments stripped suits of excess padding to make work easier and tested a shared oxygen tank that could supply them for days. Juliette estimated that two or three hundred suits remained in storage, with only a couple already modified. She used a suit and helmet to demonstrate her proposed surface escape. Nearly 150 suits have now been laid out for sizing and adjustment, more than the group needs.

Appearance

A one-piece protective body with integrated gloves, a black carbon undersuit, double back zippers, industrial Velcro, and a helmet collar. Numbered, color-coded pockets face the wearer; protective heat tape covers the exterior.

Role

Former instruments of fatal cleanings, now being adapted as protective equipment for a collective surface journey.

Relationships

Juliette — Juliette identifies defective components, tests improvements, and proposes using the suits for escape.
Supply — Materials substituted by Supply made Juliette’s first outside suit last.
Nelson — Nelson works with Juliette in suits stripped of excess padding during shared-air testing.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 10 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 14
  • Juliette’s project requires a further suit for an additional person in the second airlock.
Chapter 25
  • The suits used outside and during decontamination remain in the airlock, with only their collar radios recovered.
  • Juliette and Nelson wear suits stripped of excess padding to improve their ability to work.
  • Juliette tests a shared oxygen tank arrangement that can supply their suits for days.
Chapter 48
  • Juliette intends to use a modified suit for her overland journey.
Chapter 49
  • Juliette estimates that two or three hundred cleaning suits remain in the stores between levels thirty-four and thirty-five.
  • Juliette says she modified only a couple of the stored suits.
Chapter 57
  • Donald wants to assemble another suit for a trip outside.
Chapter 60
  • Juliette uses a cleaning suit and helmet to demonstrate her proposal to escape across the surface.
Chapter 61
  • Nearly 150 cleaning suits are laid out for sizing and adjustment, more than the group needs.
Character portrait