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

From beneath the sheet she kicks at him


playfully—he’s too far from the bed for her leg to reach but the


gesture makes him laugh, a real laugh this time, nothing faked.


“Marie,” Shanley warns. The image on the monitor shakes, unsteady.


Catching her leg, he holds her down. “You have to stay still,


“Listen to him,” Conlan tells her. He


stares at the monitor, the blurry lines just a suggestion of the


life growing within her. In a low, awed voice, he asks, “What do


“Three heads,” Shanley says. He’s so


deadpan that for a minute my heart leaps in my chest, my mind cries


out, triplets! You mean—Then he smiles and says, “I’m only


teasing. The baby’s doing real well.”


Relief floods Conlan’s face. “Oh Jesus,” he


whispers. “For a minute there I thought—”


Marie looks up at the sound of my voice and


smiles at me. “Let me guess. Neal?” When I nod, surprised, she


Chapter 107