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 stop and stare at him, this freak with the


nasty curls who has the audacity to judge me. Suddenly his touch


burns my skin. Where did they learn this language of hate? “You


forward roughly and I almost fall to my knees.


tightens them, until I can feel each pulse that carries blood from


my shoulder to my wrist, each beat of my heart caught in his


viselike grip, and my fingers tingle, he’s cutting off my


circulation, he’s holding on so damn tight. “Please,” I sob, and am


I crying? I don’t know. I don’t care. My eyes sting and my hands


are going numb and how can I fight back if I can’t even clench them


into fists? I’m cold, too cold, and my legs stumble out from


beneath me, tears burn my face. I barely see the opened door they


pull me through, I hardly notice the cells that line this new


corridor, each one empty. “Dylan,” and the name is a bitter shout,


Chapter 70