He noticed a change in Jukaga's demeanor and his image disappeared.
'Communications, what's going on?'
'Signal shifted, sir, coming back in, on a fleet scramble line.'
Jukaga's image reappeared on the screen
'I feel more comfortable now, Admiral, talking without anyone able to listen in on my side for the next several minutes. May I have your agreement that this conversation will be kept strictly between us?'
'I can't promise that,' Geoff replied.
'Then at least do not let it be shared with my own people. I've managed to have the signal scrambled from here but soon it might be compromised.'
'I agree then, it will not get back to your side.'
'We don't have much time to talk, Admiral. I want to give you a warning. I was supposed to do this anyhow but I want you to understand that my concern in this is genuine.'
'Go on then.'
'If you do not surrender your fleet, Prince Thrakhath has declared that this shall be a war of gatagak'vu. How do you say, a war of total eradication.'
Geoff felt a cold chill.
'Has it not always been thus?' he finally ventured.
'No. This is different. He will not only slaughter everyone — man, woman and child, but he will also slaughter the very worlds you live on through the use of high radiation doses. Nothing will be left, nothing. Your home, your Earth, with all its long history, will be dead, uninhabitable, lifeless.'
His words trailed off and Geoff was startled to realize that Jukaga's voice was filled with remorse.
'You wanted us destroyed, enslaved, why your concern now?' Geoff asked.
Jukaga smiled and shook his head.
'That is not your concern, Admiral Tolwyn, only my own. I therefore implore you. Surrender. If you do, I will ensure that you and your warriors are treated with honor, that your Earth will continue to live.'
'Better to die as free men then live as slaves,' Geoff replied coldly.
Jukaga nodded, a smile lighting his features.
'As any true warrior would reply, he said quietly, 'as I knew you would reply.'
'Then there's nothing more to be said.'
'I have been told to advise you that you have twenty four of your standard minutes to reply. If not, the planet you call Warsaw will cease to live.
'Go ahead and do it now,' Geoff replied coldly, 'but by God, Baron, tell Thrakhath that if he does, there'll come a day when we'll come back. If it takes a hundred years, we'll come back and we'll watch Kilrah as it's burned to ashes.'
'Good-bye, Admiral,' Jukaga said quietly and he started to reach over to switch off his screen. He paused and looked back up.
'I'm sorry,' and then his image disappeared.
Shaken, Geoff sat back in his chair. He had just condemned more than twenty million to death
'God help me,' he whispered and he lowered his head for a moment, offering a silent prayer for forgiveness and strength.
He stood back up finally and went back out on the bridge.
'Warsaw, now five million clicks astern sir,' the helm officer announced.
'Make course back towards Sirius, order destroyer squadron three.' He paused. 'No, make that squadron two, to form rear guard using maneuver delta for delaying action.'
He settled into his command chair, watching the tactical. The enemy carriers, masked by more than a hundred escorts, continued their relentless move forward, while one of the older carriers, escorted by a cruiser squadron, broke away, turning towards Warsaw.
'Get me Mike Polowski on laser link,' Geoff said quietly.
Seconds later the commander of squadron three appeared on the holo screen. Geoff felt as if the commodore were in the room with him. His features were pale, jaw quivering.
'I've got bad news for you, Mike.'
'I can see it, Geoff.'
'I'm sorry. They demanded the surrender of the fleet. If we didn't they said they'd hit your home world.'
Mike lowered his head
'You did what you had to do, Geoff. God help me, I would have done the same. Anything else, sir?'
'It's going to be bad, Mike. They're going to radiation-bombard it as well, killing the planet and everything on it.
Mike's jaw started to tremble and he turned away from the screen for a moment and then finally looked back, his eyes filled with anguish.
'Why? It's not even a military target.'
'To make an example of what's to come.'
Mike stood silently, unable to speak.
'I'm sorry, Mike.'
Polowski nodded silently and then his image winked off.
'Give me full optical power on Warsaw, patch in to their planetary defense.'
The orbital base commander appeared on the side screen, while optical locked on the planet. It still looked peaceful, an illusion since with visual scan it now took more than two minutes for the image to reach him.
'White Wolf, this is Warsaw defense. We are under attack. As per your orders, primary station has been abandoned. Civilian population are in shelters. All ground to space missiles have been expended.
'White Wolf, this is Warsaw defense. We have high speed incoming! We have . . .'
The image snapped off.
Geoff watched the optical scan in silence, and then the first blossom of light snapped across the northern continent's surface. Seconds later hundreds of snaps of light erupted, blanketing the continent. the snake-like chain of islands in the southern hemisphere erupting as well.
'We are picking up thermonuclear air bursts in the five hundred megaton range. The nukes are emitting strontium ninety,' the tactical officer announced, her voice hard-edged with rage.
'The bastards,' Geoff whispered, 'the damn bastards.'
It had gone even beyond genocide. The planet was seeded with enough strontium 90 to wipe out the entire biosphere. The Kilrathi were destroying an entire planet simply as a demonstration of what was to come.
'I know why you're here, Captain, excuse me, I think I made you a Commodore. Anyhow, Commodore, you're wasting your time.'
Without even waiting for an invitation Jason went over to the refridge in Kruger's wardroom, pulled out a container of beer and popped it open.
'Help yourself,' Kruger said quietly and then paused, 'you deserve it.'
'You did well out there,' Jason replied.
'Not good enough,' and Kruger motioned to a flat screen projecting an image from a drone probe that was circling above the main airfield and town on the Hell Hole, at least what was left of it.
'Four antimatter warheads and one thermonuclear airburst loaded with strontium ninety. The world's a write-off.'
'The bastards,' Jason hissed, looking at the radiation read-outs. There had been an unwritten and unspoken agreement between the two sides since the start of the war, that no matter how grim the conflict was, the deliberate destruction of life-bearing capability of a planet was beyond the limits. It had been in part a self- serving rule for both sides, for both sides hoped for ultimate victory and with it the worlds inhabited by their foes.
'We just got this burst signal from the Confeds,' and he switched the screen.
It was an official government news service report on the opening action in the Warsaw system and Jason watched, seething with rage as an optical scan showed the annihilation of Warsaw. The report finished with a demand from Baron Jukaga, delivered in the most sincere of voices, as if he were on the human side of the conflict,
