J.M. Snyder

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

Shanley nods. “Those were part of it, near


Dylan hugs me tighter, his breath ticklish


on my neck. “I remember those,” he says softly. “Not exactly what


Ilike to swallow, though, if you catch my drift.”


I do so I hit his arm and he laughs, but


Shanley ignores his suggestive tone, thank God. “For a while there


it was touch and go,” he says. “Too many people dying from mutated


strains of germs we conquered decades ago. The mandatory


hemothermal sterilization procedures got rid of most of that threat


before we were even born, and then the medicine cleaned up the rest


of it. We’ve still got an HTS onboard—all ships with a med lab are


required to be equipped with one, even now. But if we’re going to


run everyone through these processes, we should get started soon.


Twelve hours?” I nod, and he shakes his head. “That’s barely enough


“Why would they want us to go through


all this trouble?” Dylan asks, looking at the sheet in my


Chapter 23