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 ignore that. “You should let the ship


land,” I tell him. I don’t know the name of his girl but didn’t


someone mention that he was one of the expecting fathers? Maybe I


can reason with him, maybe he’s stronger than Conlan. “How can you


hope to survive if you can’t reproduce?”


“That’s none of your concern,” Maclin


growls. “You stop talking that shit to Jeremy. He doesn’t need to


So that’s why you’re here instead of


him.What, Ellington’s worried Conlan might actually start


listening to me? Ooh, free thought, can’t have that.“We can


help you,” I try instead. “If it’s not the bleed—”


Maclin drops his shades back into place over


his hardened eyes. “That’s a chance we can’t take.”


He turns to leave, tray in hand, and I cry


out, “What about Marie? If she doesn’t get the drug, she’ll lose


insidious. “When it might save the whole colony to keep strangers


Chapter 78