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

“Ramsey,” he chokes, and that’s all he manages to get out before


Ramsey shoves Maclin away from him and at the crowd, at me.


Fingers claw in my shirt as Maclin staggers back, searching for


purchase, but Dylan steps in front of me, knocks the grasping hands


Maclin rams into the colonists behind us and


they scatter out of his way. I see surprise flit across his face as


he lands on his ass, hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and


before he can get his breath back, Ramsey is there, fisting a hand


into his shirt, hauling him up, tossing him against the counter


with a sickening crunchthat sounds like splintering wood or


bone. “Ramsey!” Conlan cries again.


Maclin sinks to the floor, an arm wrapped


around his narrow chest, holding bruised or broken ribs, his head


hanging in defeat, but Ramsey advances on him, kicks his leg aside


and pulls him up again. When Conlan grabs his arm, tries to


intervene, Ramsey shrugs him away. “Get out of here, Jeremy,” he


Chapter 103