In the Suit Lab of Silo 17, Juliette brings back more scavenged supplies and reflects on how differently she and Solo treat the silo's steady power. While Solo leaves lights blazing, Juliette conserves energy because she does not understand its source and fears losing it. As she sorts seals, washers, and other parts for her work, she thinks of Walker's obsessive habits, feels the strain of constant climbing, and is struck again by how lonely and cut off she is.

Working among the hanging cleaning suits, Juliette is reminded that the room was built to prepare people for death. The suits, tools, and parts make the lab feel both useful and haunted. Her scavenging has exposed her to many violent remains in the dead silo, including a pair of Supply workers who died by suicide, and those memories explain why both she and Solo barricade themselves in at night. Juliette realizes that, despite the ghostly atmosphere, the Suit Lab is the only place where she has been able to sleep well; other spaces in the silo are ruined either by filth, noise, or painful associations. She also thinks of Lukas and the comfort she found talking to him from behind an empty server.

Juliette then turns to her latest project. She takes a cleaning suit helmet collar to a drill press, bores a starter hole, and threads it so an air hose coupler can be attached. Her goal is to create a way to breathe underwater, because draining the silo by makeshift methods is too slow and the real sump pumps sit submerged at the bottom. If she can wear an airtight suit underwater, feed air into it, and run electrical power down from IT, she believes she can reach the pumps and make them work, reducing the drying effort from years to weeks or months.

Solo arrives carrying fresh flatbread and sliced cucumbers, proud of the simple meal Juliette's earlier lessons have enabled him to make. When he asks what she is building, he first assumes it is another pump, then is shocked when Juliette explains her underwater plan. She walks him through the logic: the cleaning suit is watertight, the pumps should survive submersion, and she can add a deputy radio to the helmet so they can talk while she works below.

Juliette assigns Solo an essential support role at the compressor, where he will need to crank the machine, refuel it, and manage the hose and power line while she is underwater. Although Solo insists he is not worried, Juliette can see that he is frightened and trying to hide it. The chapter ends with Juliette channeling trauma and isolation into a practical, dangerous new attempt to reclaim Silo 17.