É altamente improvável que a ação da Princesa Nell tenha ameaçado os Drummers. Como você descreveu, eles subiram o extenso sistema de túneis para cima para alcançar os capilares extremos mais próximos da superfície, que foram anteriormente descritos dessa forma (ênfase minha):
Just as the waves were coming up into his face, his feet contacted something hard and smooth that gave way beneath him. He was sucked downward as the water plunged into a subterranean void. A hatch slammed shut above his head, and suddenly he was breathing air again. The light was silver. He was sitting in water up to his chest, but it rapidly drained away, drawn off by some kind of pumping system, and then he found himself looking down a long silvery tunnel.
Os túneis de pequenos alvos são projetados para ter aberturas e projetados para bombear a água se ela entrar. É impossível acreditar que não seria resiliente o suficiente para lidar com cortes acidentais ou intencionais, já que esses tipos de túneis são rotineiramente usado e não apenas uma coisa de baterista:
Hackworth had been in a few of these, normally in more industrial settings. The entrance was dug into the beach, but the rest of it was a floating tunnel, a tube full of air, moored to the bottom. It was a cheap way to make space; the Nipponese used these things as sleeping quarters for foreign guest workers.