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

Finally Conlan clears his throat and I jump,


am I that wound up? I didn’t realize it, and I smooth my jumpsuit


down over my thighs, brush Dylan’s hand and then ease mine beneath


it, curving my fingers around his. When Conlan opens his mouth to


say something, though, it’s Shanley who speaks. “Where are the


We all turn towards him. “The children?”


Shanley meets Conlan’s steady gaze and


explains. “Two of the files you sent us belonged to pregnant women,


neither with their first child. So where are the others? In


classes, maybe? I didn’t see any in the commons.”


“There are no children,” Conlan says.


His voice is quiet and sad. “None of our women have ever carried to


Silence. “None?” Dylan asks with a frown.


Shanley nods. “There was nothing in them.


“We called it the bleed,” Conlan tells


Chapter 45