There's an amusing little epilogue to that story which kind of creeped me out at the time. As I gathered my ships to invade the Sagella, it occurred to me to switch sides and see if I could stop the juggernaut that I'd created. The Sagella had only a couple of planets in that one system, but it was extremely defensible with those black hole and nebula neighbours and the Sagella had decent technology. I set about frantically building warp point defences.
A few turns later, I get the message: "Our researchers have discovered a plasma instability in the core of the star <insert home system's name here>, and predict that it will go nova in 3 years." Of course, this time there were no allies for me to take refuge with. the Sagella were doomed. And since the explosion would destroy all evidence of their civilization, my people would forevermore remain convinced that the Sagella had destroyed their home. And perhaps had found some unknown way to escape, covering their tracks with another destroyed star system.
I've got to play a sequel to that game someday...
