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

His gaze shifts to Shanley, who clears his


throat, speaks in his comforting, almost feminine physician’s


voice, the kind of voice a doctor shouldhave, the kind that


lends itself to a good bedside manner. Professional and caring and


distant and so damn compassionate, it makes your eyes tear up to


hear it. “Jeremy,” he starts, and that about does it, his name in


that voice, because Conlan’s face crumples like a used tissue and


he struggles not to cry. “I’ve been thinking,” Shanley hurries on,


easily snagging our attention. Even Ellington’s listening. “I’ll


have to get into the colony to study the disease and make sure, but


from what you’ve told me, this sounds like a fairly


straight-forward filovirus. It has all the classic symptoms. Now,


I’m not set up here to do a hemoflush, all that stuff’s back at the


station, but there are alternatives—”


“Like what?” Ellington wants to know.


He laughs, a harsh sound in the close corridor. “You want all of us


Chapter 100