Bravo!  Another well done piece.  Argh.  Now I have to decide if I want
you do do more work on this, or on Careful Destiny.  Angst.

     Meanwhile Mendou made it over to the awaiting courier.
"Report," he said simply.
    The courier bowed slightly and responded with "Sir, the
observation deck reports the following: `A strange flash  of
light  and an explosion, followed by irregularities  in  the
gravitational field.'"
     A  concerned Mendou replied, "The same sort  of  thing
happened  one year ago.  You know what happened then,  don't
you?"
     It was a rhetorical question, but the courier answered
anyway.  "That's when the Oni ship arrived!"
     Mendou  and the courier both made for the  exit,  with
Mendou saying, "Better check it out."

                            <*>

     It  was  bedlam inside the command module of  Mendou's
observation   deck.    Personnel  were   scrambling   around
acknowledging  beeps  and  flashing  lights  from  consoles,
retrieving  printouts,  or answering phones  and  monitoring
comm chatter.
    Mendou walked in shouting, "Report!"
     "Yessir.   An object is approaching the compound  from
low altitude at a high speed.  Point of origin appears to be
the Moroboshi residence."
     A  dark skinned young woman in a tech's uniform turned

>from her duty station.  "Sir!  Every system in the center is

starting  up.   The  defense system has activated  the  main
missile batteries to fire!"
     Another  female  tech  with long,  sandy  blonde  hair
shouted quickly, "Shut down all defense systems!"
     "We  can't hail them!  What'll we do?" the first  tech
asked frantically.

ROTFL!  Howl!  I wouldn't have even caught this but I just started 
re-reading the McKinney books last night.   Bad Todd!  BAD!

Keep up the good work.

	-DaR
--
Dan Root - dar@pobox.com, dar@andrew.cmu.edu