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

Above us the lights flare to life. We glance


up at the dim bulbs, and when I look down the corridor, back the


way we came, I can’t see the partially opened door. That doesn’t


mean shit,I tell myself, taking Dylan’s hand again. Now


that the power’s back on, they’ll be through that door in a


heartbeat and they’ll come looking for us.“We gotta keep


going,” I tell him, breaking into a quick jog.


Dylan leads the way, through so many twists


and turns, up stairways, down more corridors, until I’m completely


turned around, all sense of direction shot. There’s only one way,


ahead, that’s it. I don’t even know where the hell we are—I’m


surprised we’re not back in the prison, or outside the ship by this


point. Every time I look over my shoulder, I expect to see Ramsey


racing to catch us. Every corner we take, I think Maclin’s waiting


just around the bend. In the stairwells, I hear the thud of a


hundred feet trailing us. We’re lost, chased by our own shadows,


Chapter 94