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

I don’t know what I’m expecting—people


lining the corridors, maybe, craning their necks to gawk at us. But


there areno people, and the corridors are empty. Our boot


heels echo off the steel with a hollow sound that seems to fill the


whole ship and the place feels deserted, like we’re the only ones


here. “Where is everybody?” Dylan asks. He walks beside me and I


can feel his hand hovering near my back protectively.


Ellington walks ahead, setting a fast pace.


“This part of the ship’s closed off,” he explains, leading us away


from the airlock. The lights around us are dimmed, at half power—I


thought maybe they were simulating evening, but apparently not. “It


takes a lot to keep a ship this size running, as you can imagine,


and we only have two power supplies—one up now, the other on


standby. When one goes down, it takes about two months for it to


recharge.” He glances over his shoulder to make sure we’re keeping


Shanley is right behind him and then Parker,


Chapter 43