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

Fortunately he fell asleep there in my arms and I half dragged,


half carried him back to my bunk, where I tucked him beneath the


covers and sat beside him, a hand on his fevered brow. When he woke


up a few hours later, he still felt weak and unsteady but at least


the sickness had passed. Shanley stopped by to check on him one


last time—I told him Dylan was doing much better and turned him


away. “I’m still going to hurt him,” Dylan promised, glaring at the


while and now he’s in the cockpit, keeping the carrier on a steady


course and waiting. We’re all waiting. I glance at the timestamp


again and find that it’s almost a half hour past the three hour


mark. They’re late, whoever theyare. Behind me I hear the


soft hiss of the door as it irises open and I see Vallery’s


reflection in the window above me when she enters the deck. I


told you so,I think—didn’t I say this signal was nothing more


Chapter 26