Tylar Daire is the navigator on a space mission whose focus is to discover a cure for a mysterious illness killing colonists on Terra. The crew consists of the captain, a soldier for protection, a scientist to study the virus, Tylar himself, and hot-shot ace pilot Rion Z'ev. From the moment Tylar and Rion meet, sparks fly. They try their best to keep their growing relationship from the others, but when they're alone on the bridge during the day, or holed away in the sleeping quarters at night, they can't keep their hands off each other.<br><br>Soldier Jareth is an old friend of Tylar's. When he begins to suspect he's caught the virus they're trying to cure, he swears Tylar to secrecy. But Jareth gets worse, until he can't hide it any more, and he collapses out in the field. Will the crew be able to defeat the virus, or is it too late to save them all?

Navigator's Log

Rion told me he thinks we’re going the


wrong way. “There’s nothing out here but dirt and trees and that


green shit. No damn virus, that’s for sure.”


watching the others on the screens. That green shit he’s talking


about is everywhere, all over the ground outside. At first I


thought it was algae-infested water, maybe rain gathered into


depressions caused by tree roots and beneath bushes, maybe just


pools that breed mosquitoes or frogs or what have you.


But Ansel says it’s sticky, like glue.


Today Jareth stepped in it and he squished every time he walked.


Rion and I could hear it through the screens, and we snickered like


school kids watching him try to scrape the mess off his boot into


the grass. Through the headsets, we heard Ansel saying, “It’s like


he can’t say “shit.” He has to say “manure.” Like that somehow


Chapter 3