J.M. Snyder

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

At Conlan’s confused look, I explain, “We


Conlan nods. “That’s easy to do. There’s a


serviceway you have to take, brings you right out into the commons,


but you probably ran past it in the dark.”


Conlan watches the light above the door—it’s


red now, but it gradually shifts to orange, then yellow. Green and


the cycle will be complete. “Then we go back to the colony,” Conlan


says. He’s excited, I can see it in the nervous way he twists his


hands in the hem of his shirt. “And Tobin says it’s all my fault—he


wouldn’t let up on that. Ben almost decked him for it, he just


doesn’t know when to quit. Me, I didn’t say anything because, well,


it wasmy fault, and I think Ben sort of knew that. He knows


a lot of stuff you don’t think he’s noticed. Nothing slips by him,


I don’t doubt it. The light above the door


is a bright yellow now, and Conlan begins to shift from foot to


Chapter 97