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

Thinking of him brings the anger back, the indignation, the hate. I


still can’t quite believe they just took him away from me, tore him


from my bed, while we slept—how could we guard against that? I


didn’t think there was anything toguard against. I thought


I crawl onto the bunk, cram myself back in


the corner and pull my knees up tight to my chest, until I’m taking


up as little of this damn cell as I possibly can. Maybe I can cease


to be here. Maybe I can live wholly in my mind, my heart, my soul,


where Dylan is. They can’t keep me here,I tell myself.


I’m free if I don’t let them get into me.


I should’ve seen this coming. The dirty


looks whenever Dylan touched me. The harsh whispers when we passed.


The way Conlan and Ellington both skirted around the subject, using


oblique references and obscure terms, trying to tell us with their


eyes alone that they didn’t want us together. For the good of the


Chapter 71