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

napkin—folded, it’s unnoticeable. The words are crammed together so


tight, some of them run into each other, but I still manage to make


them out. They give me more questions than answers, though. How did


the Semper Filand if Ellington didn’t want to give Parker


coordinates? He’s still not letting them in, though. And Marie’s


getting worse. It occurs to me that I’ve never talked with her, I


don’t know her feelings on this whole situation. Is she as blasé as


Maclin about the life of the child she carries? Is she xenophobic


I doubt it. If she’s managed to break


through the emotional barriers Conlan built around himself like all


the other colonists, then she probably shares his anguish, his


desperate hope. All the more reason to help her, help them both.


Maybe this will be the start of a new family unit here, one that


doesn’t fall apart from death or disease, one that survives.


Only then will the colony—and Operation


Chapter 88