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

Touché,I think, and I have to fight the urge to smirk at


him. “I’ll log the call, don’t worry about it,” I say. “When I get


“In the meantime I’ll just listen to


the backup,” Dixon grumbles. “I forgot he dumped you for this


doessmirk because he knows that was low. “Get out,” I tell


him. When he doesn’t move, I turn around and hit the power switch.


The door tries to cycle shut but he’s in the way and it aborts the


attempt, eases open again. “I said—”


back. This time when I hit the switch, the door closes like the


petals of a flower, silver swirls tightening into each other.


Before he’s gone completely, Dixon tells me, “I heard


“Fuck you,” I mutter, but he’s on the


other side of the door now and doesn’t hear me. He didn’t dump


me for this mission,I tell myself, but it’s a cold assurance


Chapter 6