"A few minutes won't hurt," said Cameron. "Lucky we found you when we did or you'd have missed it." "What do you mean, lucky?" growled Jordan. "I was on my way here when you yelled." "Have you seen it in operation?" said Jeriann. "Cameron said you found the place." "If I had I'd have told you. The scanner wasn't finished last time I was here. I figured Nona would let us know when she was ready." The tunnel turned sharply and though they could hear Jordan's voice the words were indistinct. It was a quirk of acoustics because, as they travelled on, utter silence descended. They could hear nothing at all until the tunnel curved again and they entered the cavern. He glanced around once before they were noticed. The nine geepee heads Cameron had described were almost indiscernible under the mass of circuitry that covered them. Nona had improved the scanner. He could identify some of the components but the arrangement was totally unfamiliar. He thought he could trace the basic outline. It was a gravity device of some kind, what kind he wasn't sure. If he had thought about it previously he would have realized it practically had to be that. "They're here," said Jeriann at his side, and he hadn't seen how she'd got there. Seconds before she'd been arguing with Jordan and now she was next to him. Jordan looked up and Nona clipped a few connections in place. She stayed close to the doctor. "We all know what we came for so there's no need for preliminaries," said Docchi. "Cameron, can you tell Nona to start the scanner?" "My communication is rather primitive," said Cameron with a slight smile. "However----" He had no time to say more. Nona didn't move but the scanner responded. A shape glowed, a vague nebula, far away. It came closer and the nebula dissolved--it was a ship. There was darkness all around and yet the ship wasn't dark. The lights that streamed out of the ports couldn't account for this, there was nothing to reflect it on the hull. Radar was one explanation, a gravity radar. The impulses left the asteroid, traversed the space to the far away object and bounced back--in no-time. "It's a military ship," said Jordan. "The biggest." The ship rocked a little or perhaps the scanner resolved the image better. The name began to swing into sight. "Tory," repeated Webber when he was able to read it. "Victory. And victory always ends with _tory_." "Star Victory," said Jeriann as the ship rotated and the full name grew visible. "They're premature. They haven't won yet." "But how far away?" growled Jordan. "We ought to know the power of the screen." The scanner wasn't calibrated and so they didn't know the distance. Later Nona might add that refinement but if she didn't there was practically no way of telling her what they wanted. Now there was merely a three quarter view, the nose of the ship and enough to make out that the rockets weren't flaring. Gravity drive of course. But they knew that.