Assuming he somehow survived the best ending of Standoff, what position was Jukaga in the Kilrathi hierarchy? Could he have replaced Thrakhath?
Well, for starters you really shouldn't assume he somehow survived the best ending. In the best ending, the Kilrathi do still take all the same losses as in the book - and then they take some more. So, Jukaga is dead. But, assuming he did somehow survive... it's almost impossible to tell how things would have gone. Jukaga had no special importance in terms of sheer power - he was just one of the eight main clan leaders. What he did have was the past importance of his family, and the fact that in a situation where everyone felt the Kiranka clan were leading the Kilrathi to defeat, Jukaga's clan would be a natural replacement. On the other hand, however, it would not have been hard for the Emperor to have Jukaga executed immediately, and with full support of the other clans - after all, he did try to kill the Emperor. If he survived the battle while Thrakhath did not, then the Emperor would have suddenly come up with evidence for this previous assassination attempt, and would have suggested that perhaps it's not a coincidence that Jukaga survived while Thrakhath had died.
On a sidenote, I've always found it interesting how excited people get about Jukaga, in terms of "what if he had been in power". Well, if he had been in power, the Kilrathi would still have fought against humans, it's just that they would have been led by someone who understood humans better, and therefore would have been more effective. He didn't love humans, and was perfectly in agreement about the need to subjugate the Confederation. His ascension to power, had it happened, would have been very bad news indeed for the Confederation, the only upside of it being that perhaps humanity as a race would have been relegated to mere slavery, rather than extermination.
