"What?" said Cameron. "Oh, I leave that to you and Jordan. I can't explain it."
Docchi guessed why the doctor was less concerned than he tried to be. Let him live with his exaltation for a while. It might not last. "Part of it's easy, how the ship came to be there."
"It isn't to me," said Cameron. "We haven't been gone long, not much more than a month."
"Six weeks to be exact. Six weeks on our calendar."
"I see, relative time. I heard we were approaching the speed of light but I didn't think we were close enough to make any difference." He glanced at his watch as if it held secrets he couldn't fathom. "How long have we actually been gone, Earth time?"
"I don't know. We haven't any figures on our acceleration rate nor our present speed."
"What are you planning to do? We can't just sit here and let them overtake us."
"I don't know. We're not helpless." Docchi's plans were vague. There was much that had to be determined before he could decide on anything. "You're certain it's one of ours? It's not an alien ship?"
The idea hadn't occurred to Cameron. He turned the image around in his mind before he answered. "I'm not familiar with ship classifications, but it's ours unless these aliens use the English language. There was a name on it. I could read part. It ended in -tory."
"The Victory class," said Docchi. "The biggest thing built. At one time it was intended for interstellar service, before the gravity drive fizzled."