Chapter 12: The Price of Zero-Nine's Contract

The neutral chamber smelled like nothing.

Zero-Nine had catalogued this fact on arrival and noted it again now, standing in the doorway of the side passage she'd claimed while the others spread into their respective corners of the hub. The ashfield had smelled of mineral dissolution and something older underneath it, like granite dust and stopped time. Karrath Prime smelled of warm water and ozone and the particular chemical signature of recycled air pushing through compromised filtration. The chamber between terrains smelled of absolutely nothing, which was itself a form of information. Whatever this space was made of, it did not off-gas. It had no biological history. It had never been rained on or breathed in or heated by anything as imprecise as weather.

She stepped into the passage and pulled the junction screen closed behind her.