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

At first I think he hasn’t heard me. Then I


think he’s mad, he’s not going to reply, he’s probably already


halfway to the signal’s origin and anything he says will clue me in


to the fact that he’s not waiting around for anyone, he’s going to


find the lost colony and make a name for himself as the starmapper


who located S410, whatever the hell it is. Maybe they’ll name a


star after him—I know that’s gone through his mind, I know him so


well and that’s probably the first thing he thought of when he


intercepted the signal. “Dylan?” I ask, nervous. “Don’t tell me


That makes me frown. “Did I?” I don’t


remember. Freudian slip,I think. So much for him not


knowing how you feel.“Dylan, don’t do anything without Dixon’s


Then the transmission dissolves into thick


static and I listen to it a minute more, two minutes, three, trying


Chapter 9