Neal James is a space station navigator whose lover, Dylan Teague, left him for a starmapping mission. But when Dylan radios in a distant signal one night, Neal discovers that he hasn't managed to put the relationship behind him in the two months they've been apart. When he's one of the crew members sent to investigate the signal, he finds that his ex-lover feels the same.<br><br>The source of the signal is a lost colony ship. Only a handful of the original colonists remain, survivors of a deadly disease that killed most of their fellow shipmates twenty years ago. To keep the threat of disease to a minimum, the colony adheres to strict laws, including the prohibition of same-sex relationships.<br><br>When the same fatal virus seems to appear again, Neal and Dylan find themselves in the midst of an irrational panic and hate that threatens to destroy everything the colonists have worked so hard to attain.

Operation Starseed

But Tony’s watching me and this is being


recorded, I can’t say anything like that. So the only thing I


murmur into the open channel is, “Night, Dylan.”


His reply is just as brief, just as soft.


Then the connection breaks and the static


dissolves around us, and Tony asks quietly, “Dylan?”


He knows we were lovers. He knows I fell for


the boy the moment he walked onboard this station, cocky and


confident, and when he winked at me that day, I fell like one of


the stars out there, burning with lust and desire. Tony’s my best


friend, he knowsall this, everything that happened, how


Dylan was my first and how he made me feel like I was the only one


who mattered and how proud I was when Dixon chose him for the


mapping duty because out there among the stars, that’s where he


wanted to be. And I think he knows that I’m still missing him—he


knows we broke up and he knows it wasn’t what I wanted and he knows


Chapter 4