Lili read the sign. "Z. E. R. O. Project zero." "Exactly", replied Miraldi. "The shielding is so perfect that any energy inside the chamber must have been generated there. No energy comes in, or goes out. Originally, this facility was developed to calibrate and test very sensitive sensors used to measure cosmic rays." "There must be other uses for a chamber like this.", she said. "You could test all sorts of communication and sensory equipment. There is something that you said that bothers me though. You have complete shielding of all forms of radiation?" "All known forms, except one.", replied Miraldi. "Which one would that be?", asked Boone, looking bored. "Gravity!", replied Lili. "You couldn't shield against that!" As she thought about this, Lili’s excited smile faded into a scowl only to be almost instantly replaced by a look of astonishment. "Does that mean that you could connect several of these chambers through a null matrix array to detect, and even measure, gravity waves?" "Yes.", Miraldi replied. "We have done exactly that." He turned to Boone. "You were right, Commander. Captain Marquette appears to have more than an adequate grasp of the needed sciences. Along with her military and flight training, that makes her a superior asset for the tasks at hand." Boone nodded and said, "But with all of these equipment radiation restrictions, how do we get inside?"

"In answer to your question, I have bad news, and good news.", said Miraldi "The bad news is that you will have to leave all your electronics here at the entrance desk. John and Carl will look after your Global Links, personal locators, and your sidearm, Captain." Lili started to protest, but Boone cut her off. "You said that we would not have to disarm." "True, Commander. Everywhere but here. It's is only because of the electronics on her sidearm that there is a problem." "What about this?", Boone asked, raising his Skrill. "It can emit a lot of energy." "That's true.", replied Miraldi. "But it is basically biological. I trust that you will keep your ‘friend’ calm and relaxed. Now we come to the good news." He turned to face Lili squarely. "Although you will have to leave your other electronics out here, especially your global Links, if you will switch off the electronics package, and leave the energy cell here, you can keep your sidearm." Lili pulled her gun out of the holster. She did not quite point the barrel at Miraldi's nose. "What if someone calls us?", she snarled. Miraldi grinned and turned to face Boone. Boone just looked back at him blankly for a few seconds, then remembered that this was his cue. "Yes, we will simply call headquarters and explain that we will be out of contact for a while." He said it so stiffly that Lili had the impression that he was reading the words from script that he was seeing in his head. Boone would never make a good actor, she thought. She began to make the adjustments to her sidearm. Boone opened the pull out screen on his Link. The face of Agent Ronald Sandoval appeared. "Ron.", Boone said. "Lili and I are conducting an investigation. We will be out of communication for a short while." With a whoosh, the face of Sandoval was replaced by that of Da’an "What is the nature of you investigation, Commander?", Da’an asked. "A synthetic butterfly has been located. It appears to be based on the same technology as that alien probe We are recovering it." Da’an blushed. "I was under the impression that all of the technology from the probe had been contained." "So was I", replied Boone. "If there is this one butterfly, there may be more. I feel that this could be a significant threat to Companion interests." "I concur. What is the reason for the communication interruption?" "The butterfly is being held in a zero energy transfer chamber at this location. It is the only way that the butterfly could be restrained. Our communication devices won't work inside the chamber." "Proceed", said Da’an, and the screen went dark. Boone handed the Link to one of the security guards. Lili handed her Link and the energy cell from her sidearm to the other guard who took it and stared back at her unblinking. "You two won't be coming in with us?", Lili asked the guard. It was Miraldi who answered. "No, no. John and Carl will stay here and make sure that we are not disturbed." "I thought that they were required to accompany us everywhere. So much for the rules.", said Boone. "They are my rules.", Miraldi replied. "Yeah. Rules to your game.", Lili added sourly. Miraldi looked at her and tried to smile disarmingly. It had no affect on Lili. "Captain Marquette.", he said. "Once inside, all will be revealed. Especially to you."

The ZERO room was dome shaped chamber over 200 feet in diameter and half that distance high at the center. On the inside, there were two lights of some type on either side of the entrance that gave off a muted greenish glow. More of that same type of lights was strung around the perimeter of the room. A group of the lights hung from the center of the ceiling. The pattern of the lights is what enabled Lili to determine the shape and size of the room. She moved next to one of the lights to give it a closer examination. That is when she noticed that the wall was not just black, it was beyond black. With her face inches away from junction between the fixture and the wall, she could see the light fixture clearly enough, but her eyes could not perceive the surface of the wall. It was as if all the light touching the wall was absorbed completely. She reached out her hand to touch the wall, and then thought better of it. She turned back toward the center of the room. Miraldi was a little less than half way to center of the room and still walking towards the center. Boone was standing a few feet away from Lili and had been watching her examine the lights. She joined Boone and the two of them started to catch up to Miraldi. After a few paces, Lili noticed that she could not hear Miraldi's footfalls ahead of them. That was not too surprising given the distance. What was surprising was that she could not hear the footfalls of Commander Boone walking beside her, or her own footfalls on he floor under her feet. Glancing down, she could not even see the floor on which they were walking. "Good thing that I don't suffer from vertigo.", she thought. To Boone she said, "This place gives me the creeps." "Tell me about it.", he retorted. "My CVI has been going nuts ever since we came into this room."

In the exact center of the room was a square table. About three feet away from each of the corners of the table stood a floor stand mounted version of the green lights that were on the walls. In the center of the table was a gray rectangular box. Miraldi opened the lid of the box and removed a neatly fitting glass cage. On the floor of that cage was one of the black and red butterflies that Boone and Lili had encountered in the Amish village in Pennsylvania. Miraldi handed the cage to Boone. Lili, remembering how a swarm of these beautiful killers had covered every inch of her shuttle, trapping her inside, shuddered slightly. "Looks so peaceful.", said Boone. "The peace of death", replied Miraldi

"It looks perfectly intact.", said Lili. "It's mechanical. How can it be dead?" Miraldi replied, "Well, it has been setting in this room long enough to be drained of all of its energy. This sample was taken intact. Commander Boone did not destroy them all. It will take time to track them all down and either destroy them or drain them. This one took three months." "You have had this for over three months and didn't call us until now?", Lili asked.

"Yes, Captain. I did not want to waste my ‘calling card’ too soon. I needed a reason for you to come here. Specifically to this room. It had to be a good enough reason so that the Companions would think that you needed to be here. And they had to think that being here was a good enough reason for you to be separated from your Global Link. I need a witness. You, Captain Lili Marquette, are my witness. Commander Boone was just a way to get to you. It is your unique qualities that make you the one person who could be the right witness. I need someone who is familiar with every aspect of Taelon shuttles that is also a member in good standing of the Liberation."

Lili’s eyes opened as wide as saucers, she set her jaw, gritted her teeth, and put her hand on her gun. "Hold on, Miraldi! You can't talk to me like that! How dare you malign my character by attempting to connect me with the Liberation?" Boone tried to step in. "Calm down, Lili. He knows. He knows about all of us." Miraldi continued, "Correct. You are in no danger of exposure though. This is the one room that can't be bugged. I had to get you here to explain things to you. That, and to get you two away from your Links." "Why?", asked Lili. It was Boone who responded. "The Global Links have been bugged. By the Taelons."

Lili asked, "How is that possible?" Miraldi replied, "The Global Links contain the best receiving equipment ever devised. It can receive any kind of transmission on any frequency, and it can receive more than one signal at a time. That is how you can get weather information, stock quotes, and the like while you are talking to some one. I know that you are familiar with Global Positioning via Satellite." Lili nodded. "Pilots have been using this to locate themselves since the 1980’s. It was a simple matter of a software upgrade, like a virus, to make certain Links access the positioning data, encode it, and send it along piggybacked on top of the regular picture and sound transmission. This means that every time you get, or place, a call on your Link, the system knows where you are, down to the nearest foot." Lili gulped. "That's terrible. It's 'Big Brother' all over again. But what does it have to do with me specifically, and how is it connected to shuttle technology?"

"Nothing, really. Like our little mechanical friend on the table, it is interesting. Something to be noted as a problem to be solved later. The Link problem can be handled by using deception and caution. The butterfly is a red herring, actually a red and black herring. An intact specimen for you to present to the Taelons. They will drool over it and call you heroes. Side issues, the both of them! You, Captain, are here for something of true importance. Let the others handle the trifles!"

Lili was truly astounded. "Killer butterflies roaming the countryside, the Taelons tracking our every move! You call these things trifles? What could be more important than these, and me being the key?" Boone was the one to respond. He looked at Lili with a dead calm expression. "Lili, what I tried to explain to you on the flight here was no joke, and no dream. It is real." Lili looked back at him questioningly. "This doorway to nothing? How does this involve shuttle technology?" Miraldi responded, "Taelon shuttles use a field generator to spring the shuttle into interdimensional space. We have had a stolen generator for quite a long time. We used it to figure out how to build generators of our own. It is your understanding of shuttle technology that will enable you to understand our greatest invention." "And what would that be?", asked Lili.

"The Interdimensional Doorway. You see, the field generator is one of the best things that we have ever stolen from the Taelons. One of them allows a shuttle to skim along at a tremendous speed. Two of them, at different locations but focused at each other, opens a tunnel between them. Two of them, at the same location acting in concert and focused on the same point, can open a doorway. Victory for the Human race awaits just the other side of that doorway."