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

thought of Dylan as that since he left. Watch yourself,


James,my mind warns. I zip up my jumpsuit slowly, my fingers


numb. You don’t need to want him now. You were doing good,


And how am I supposed to do that if he’s


But moving on isn’t turning off the backups


so we can talk freely. Moving on isn’t calling him baby—I


didn’t do that last night, did I? Moving on is forgetting the way


we were, the way he looked beneath my sheets first thing in the


morning, the way he would pull me back to the bed as I was getting


dressed and kiss my knee, my hand, anything he could reach without


having to get out from between the covers. “Come back here and love


me,” he’d say, and moving on isn’t thinking about that,


either, it doesn’t help now, he’s not here, is he? Is


No, he’s not, Tony is, he’s waiting for me


and I’m still not sure why. As I pull on my boots, I ask, “What are


Chapter 10