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

eating and when it looks like Dylan’s done, I stand with my tray in


hand and head back to the counter. Dylan follows me. “You think


this is going to work?” he asks as I set my tray among the others


“I don’t know,” I tell him. I step


aside and wait while he stacks his tray on top of mine. It wobbles


I glance back at our table, where Shanley is


now getting to his feet and Parker is shoveling the rest of his


food into his mouth as quickly as he can. “I think it might,” Dylan


says. I get the feeling he’s only trying to fill the silence that


envelops us, close this distance that the colonists have sort of


forced upon us. “Do you think Shanley will get back in time?”


“Dylan,” I sigh as the others head our


Beside me, Dylan frowns slightly and I’m


about to apologize for snapping at him, he knows I don’t know the


Chapter 59