Cobra Gamble by Timothy Zahn

was saying yesterday the whole thing reminded him of Israelite slaves building pyramids back on Earth in some big screen epic."
    "Yes, I guess I can see that," Jody agreed, looking closely at Harli's face. "He doesn't like the agreement, does he?"
    Harli huffed out a sigh. "No, he's not very happy with it," he conceded. "Or with me." His lip twitched. "And to be honest, I'm starting to agree with him."
    "He's worried about the Qasamans having Isis?"
    "He's more annoyed that we don't have it." Harli gestured at two of the Cobras standing on the wall. "I mean, look at them. They're just standing there, doing absolutely nothing except ride herd on a bunch of prisoners. Meanwhile, Stronghold is running low on food, and the other towns are having to stay inside their own walls because they haven't got enough Cobras to escort anyone heading outside."
    And without the ability to send out hunting parties, Jody knew, those other towns would also soon be running short of food. "Maybe we should lock them up in the ships," she suggested. "Or maybe just that one," she added, pointing to the second Troft warship, the one still standing upright beside the sideways one. "At least that would eliminate a lot of the guard duty."
    "Then who would do all the work to get the other ship out of there and start repairing the wall?" Harli countered. "Besides, there's no way to know what's still aboard that ship. They could have a hundred of those big hand lasers hidden behind the walls for all we know. Worse, they might find a way to wire around the power and control cables we cut and reactivate what's left of their wing-based weapons."
    Weapons that had devastated sections of Stronghold and killed or injured three hundred Cobras, including Jody's own father. Not to mention nearly getting her mother killed outright. "You're right," she acknowledged. "Sorry—I didn't think it through."
    "Don't worry about it," Harli said. "We've been working through all the options longer than you have, that's all. The idea actually surfaced almost a week ago, right after your parents and the rest of the crowd headed off for Qasama." He hesitated. "We also considered the idea of just dumping them out in the forest somewhere and letting Wonderland deal with them."
    Jody felt a shiver run through her. Wonderland —Caelian slang for everything on the planet not under direct human control. Out in the forest, without weapons or defenses, the aliens would be dead within days. Probably within hours. "You might as well just shoot them."
    "Which would be completely unethical," Harli agreed grimly. "I know. But ethics don't feed the bulldog, as my grandfather used to say. Doesn't get us any more Cobras, either."
    "If sending Isis to Qasama wins us the war, it'll be worth it," Jody reminded him.
    "If." Harli said. "And if it doesn't kill all of us first."
    For a minute they stood together in silence, watching the Trofts work. Most of the aliens she could see had their upper-arm membranes fully extended, the equivalent of heavy sweating for humans. Their overseers were working them hard, all right. Occasionally, Jody caught a flicker of light as one of the Cobras on guard duty fired his antiarmor laser, probably at some predator nosing around the work zone. "What did you mean, the circus?" she asked.
    Harli turned a frown onto her. "What?"
    "You asked me if I was here for the circus or the Biblical epic," she said. "What circus?"
    "Oh. Right." He gestured to her and started walking again toward the gap in the wall. "I just got the word—I was heading to see it myself. This way."
    They passed the line of sentries, maneuvered carefully over the crushed wall with its torn and twisted edges and past the equally hazardous wreckage of the downed warship. Some of the Trofts gave them baleful looks as they threaded their way through the work parties, but most of the prisoners ignored them entirely.
    And as they approached the last two parties, Jody finally saw what Harli had been