Read Online Bayne by Misa Buckley - Free Book Online

frowned. “We’re two days out from Terranis. I was wondering—”
    “I’m staying.”
    Surprise flickered over his face, swiftly followed by delight. “Ah! Good.” He smiled wider. “Good.”
    She blushed and adjusted the coil on the communicator, then turned it on. Static crackled. “There, you see—I told you it would work.”
    “Indeed, you did.”
    Malia twisted the dial to improve reception. Words buzzed through the white noise. She made a second adjustment to the coil and tuned the device again.
    “… incoming, my lord. Shields are raised …”
    She looked up at Giles. “Apparently I can contact the bridge. Or at least hear them.”
    “Sounds like we have a problem,” he replied. “Maybe we should get up there and see if we can be of assistance.”
    “Good idea.”
    They left the lab at a jog. Malia let Giles take the lead, since she still tended to get lost in the labyrinth of corridors that crisscrossed the space ship. Halfway there, a siren screeched into life and the lights went red.
    A vibration shook the ship.
    “What’s going on?” she called out.
    “No idea. Come on, hurry!”
    She sped up, though running down a passageway when it twisted and pitched wasn’t easy. Steam burst from a pipe and she dodged the plume, spinning to stare at it. Giles grabbed her arm. She nodded and ran with him.
    The bridge was in chaos. Sparks and smoke rose from several of the stations. Beyond the window she could see several large rocks. Asteroids. Her stomach dropped into her boots. They’d been hit. How bad was the damage? And where the hell was Bryce?
    “Here.” A strong arm curved around her waist and she expelled a sharp breath of relief. “Can you try and get the shields back up? They’re under forty per cent and we don’t stand a chance at that level.”
    “What happened? Shouldn’t the scanners have picked the field up?”
    “Should have done.” His smile was grim. “Would have done had we not been sabotaged.”
    Horror spread through her on a cold wave. “Grieves?”
    “His sycophants. One of them died in the attempt, which I can’t be sorry about.” He let her go and faced her. Blood gathered at his temple. She touched the wound gently. “Leave that,” he told her. “Doesn’t matter in the greater scheme of things.”
    Malia dropped her hand and went to the shield console. The steel was tarnished by soot and the display was dim. She knelt down and removed the panel from the underside, then glanced up to find Bryce watching her.
    “I can do this,” she said. “You make sure your crew’s okay.”
    He nodded and vanished into the haze of smoke. Her throat closed over. What if she never saw him again?
    But she couldn’t think like that. She had to concentrate on the task at hand. She pulled out a handful of scorched wiring and began to strip the ruined sections out. Someone handed her a fresh reel and she spliced it into the system. However, even that repair wasn’t enough.
    “Is there somewhere we can divert power from?” she called out as the ship shook at another impact. “Like, I don’t know, but how about Grieves’s cell?”
    This gained her a bark of laughter from one of the crew. He grinned at her. “I can jettison one of the storage sections and divert from there.”
    “Do it.” She watched the glow of the display shine brighter. The level indicator rose, inching up to over sixty percent then stopping. Better, but not enough. “Can you give me more?”
    “Not much more,” he said with a shake of his head.
    Another rock slammed into the ship. More sirens set off, accompanied by the monotone voice of the computer informing the crew to evacuate. Malia swore and moved to the communications console. She silenced the computer with a slice of her wire cutter, then rerouted the power from that station to the failing shields. The level went up to eighty-three.
    “Belay that order,” she shouted over the din. “Hold your positions! We can still get through.”
    Going