The agent was the one who put them on the trail n the first place. And the story doesn't have to end with the base self-destructing. At the last minute, with the ground prepared the agent can intervene, dropping in unannounced on the characters.
Bringing his trained Zhodani with him.
Oh! And I know what they'd be looking for! Another Toliak, only this one providing a scan of space in any chosen direction!
"What's a Toliak?" I hear you say.
Well, you know those Zhodani Core Expeditions and all those ships heading along a corridor thousands of light years long? They're only doing that because they have access to a device, the Toliak, that enables them to scan that long corridor in real time.
So perhaps if they had one that they could use to scan space for thousands of light years along a corridor in a direction they could aim, that could be used to scan, and gather information on, any location in the Consulate.
And the Marches.
And Corridor.
And the Imperium.
Fleet movements, trade routes, X-boat routes ... all laid out before the Zhodani Consulate's steely eyes ...
That is, if they can get their hands on such a thing.
And if it happens to be immobile, and fixed in place, why then they'd have to just take over Fulacin, wouldn't they?
