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

When I try to open my mouth all that comes out is an angry roar and


whoever is pinning me down stifles it, grinding my face into the


mattress.Don’t fight them, this is just a misunderstanding, it


Conlan’s voice, thick with sleep, and I’m glad he’s here because


that’s what I’dlike to know. “Ben—”


“You know the rules,” Ellington says.


There’s no sympathy in his words—what happened to the guy who gave


us ten minutes in the dark last night? Where is he now?


Rough hands turn me around, someone I don’t


know, a guy my age with thick, dark hair matted into ratty curls


that frame his face. There’s a gleam in his eyes that I don’t like


and he pinches my arm where he holds me. Someone else has my


wrists, someone I can’t see, but that Ramsey guy is on Dylan,


bending his arms behind his back at awkward angles, and Maclin’s


hand fists in those long bangs I love. “Let him go,” I growl,


Chapter 68