Cleaning Suit
Tailored protective clothing for cleaners, the suit contains deliberately weak components that make its protection unreliable.
Story so far
Cleaning suits enclose their wearers in a one-piece body with integrated gloves, rear fastenings and numbered pockets readable from above. Each is tailored to the person awaiting cleaning, and removal normally requires help. Holston wore a black carbon undersuit beneath his suit.
Juliette questioned why centuries of improvements had never carried cleaners farther. Supply substituted durable materials for her suit, which she regarded as a gift from Supply and Walker. Its thick, heat-taped gloves made the helmet latches difficult to operate; she eventually cut the suit apart and abandoned its remains. Her later inspection found deliberately weak components, including a gasket that split under her fingernails. Even her improved protection could not keep an airlock fire from burning her. Donald now thinks cleaning suits break down at a deliberately selected time and place.
Appearance
The suit has integrated gloves, double rear zippers, industrial Velcro and numbered, color-coded pockets. Juliette’s reinforced version used extensive heat tape over a charcoal undersuit.
Role
Cleaning suits provide the protection issued for trips outside, while their engineered weaknesses make that protection temporary.
Relationships
Earlier in this series
Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:
- WoolBook 1
Sources — 4 recorded facts, by chapter
- Mission carried part of the cleaning suit up from IT for the most recent cleaning.
- Mission regards a cleaning suit as a bag made for someone who must enter it alive and die inside it.
- The suit worn by silo eighteen’s cleaner is reported to have been modified.
- Donald thinks cleaning suits are designed to break down at a particular time and place.