The rear laser was firing as Bonnie poured it into them."Heat ratio at twenty-five percent," Jenny said.Bonnie got a good lock on one of the pursuing ...essels. She toggled the cyclotron-firing switch to auto-fire, and watched as over twenty bolts of high energy laser fire poured into the Permethian ship. She was rewarded with a brilliant flash, as the ship exploded into space dust.The lead Permethian ship toggled its ECM (electronic counter measures) system, in an attempt to confuse or detonate. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. You’re supposed to seduce him. Fuck him silly-rip black heart out. She heard him chuckling, then felt him stroke her hair. “You speak strangely, little Edenian.” She struggled half-heartedly against the power bonds and tried for a seductive stare...that is, if she could keep herself from melting beneath his own seduction. Heaven help her. Those eyes. She opened her mouth to say something—anything—but became lost in his gaze, that face, those lips...Oh God. He’s an absolute. He could heat air for warming their homes and cool air for building refrigerators, maybe even freezers. Now, he was on to something!The first thing Doug had to do was to make a suitable air compressor. He had a reliable power source in his windmills, so that part of the solution was already on hand. For his compressor, Doug built a cylinder from concrete, about 12 inches inside diameter and 24 inches long. One end was plugged by a concrete disk sealed to it, and a similar disk of casein plastic. "Cherie had to smile because she knew that Mary was more concerned with a new boy friend than she was about missing a test. "Honey, I don't think school will be open Monday," Cherie said gently. "I think Uncle Frank is right. We need to stay here and see what happens."It seemed like a good idea at the time. It seemed like a good idea until about an hour ago.A pickup had pulled up in front of the cabin with three men sitting in the cab and three more in the pickup bed. They didn't say anything.