There was a pause. [To return to Qasama, enough exists.]
[The truth, you speak it,] Jin agreed. [But Qasama, we do not yet return there. Extra fuel, can you supply it?]
[This fuel, to what use?]
Jin smiled tightly. [Victory against the attacking demesne-lords, its use will be.]
There was another pause. Jin could feel the eyes of the Qasamans on her; deliberately, she kept her own gaze on the Troft ship on the display. [Your course, you will hold it,] the Troft said at last. [To your side, we will come.]
[Our gratitude, you have it,] Jin said. [Your arrival, we will await it.]
There was a click from the speaker. Jin gestured, and Rashida flicked off their own transmitter. "Is this making of rash promises a general trait of your people?" Khatir asked mildly. "Or is it just you personally?"
"I've made no rash promises," Jin assured him. "To anyone," she added, looking at Siraj Akim. "I promised Miron Akim that I would return with help. And I will." She gestured toward the besieged world hanging in space in the distance. "I simply came to the wrong place to get it."
"I thought Aventine was the capital and most powerful of your worlds," Akim said, frowning.
"It is," Jin said, nodding. "It has one and a quarter million inhabitants, about eighty-five percent of our total population. If the Trofts have any tactical sense at all, this is where they'll throw the bulk of their forces."
"Obviously, they have," Khatir said, waving at the distant ring of ships.
"But there's another world out there," Jin continued. "A world named Caelian, with a little over four thousand colonists. Tactically and strategically speaking, it's a completely insignificant place. I can't imagine any competent military commander putting more than a token force there, if that much."
"And you expect all four thousand to rise to our aid?" Siraj scoffed.
"Not at all," Jin said. "The point is that among those four thousand colonists are seven hundred Cobras."
And suddenly, the atmosphere in the control room was charged with electricity. The Qasamans sat up a little straighter, flicking glances back and forth between them, and Jin could see in their faces a sense of understanding and a freshly renewed hope.
As well as a freshly renewed fear.
She couldn't blame them. They had grown up hating and fearing the Cobra Worlds, the people in general and the Cobras in particular. Now, suddenly, their leaders had ordered that those very Cobras be asked for help.
Would the ultimate result of that plea be Qasama's salvation? Or was it a pact with the devil that would lead to their ruin?
It was a question none of them could answer. Including Jin herself.
Typically, it was Khatir who broke the silence. "So what are we doing here?" he asked. "Let's get this ship fueled, and go find some demon warriors."
"I just hope some of them will be willing to come to Qasama to fight," Siraj added doubtfully.
"I know at least one who will," Jin told him, a sudden pang in her heart. "My husband is there. Along with my daughter."
Siraj snorted. "
One
Cobra? Yes, that will certainly bring us victory."
Zoshak stirred. "If he fights as do Jasmine and Merrick Moreau," he said quietly, "it very well might."
"There will be more," Jin promised.
And she meant it. Whatever it took, she
would
assemble a fighting force to take back with them.
Because the Tlossies were right. They needed a clear-cut human victory if they were to have any hope of rallying support among the other Troft demesnes. From the number of sentry ships encircling Aventine, it was clear that victory wasn't going to be achieved there. Not any time soon.
Perhaps that was only fitting. The war had begun on Qasama. One way or another, it was going to end there.