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

Dylan’s arms tighten around me possessively.


“Did he touch you?” he wants to know. “If you’re sick and it’s his


fault, I’ll tear his arms off. Which one is he again?”


“Baby,” I whisper, patting Dylan’s


“We got in a little… argument,” I say.


“Nothing major, don’t worry. He didn’t touchme.” But he


wanted to,I add silently. Still, I know Dylan well enough to


know that if I tell him what happened, the way Tobin came onto me,


the way he touched himself while looking at me—if I told him


that, he’d be down in the quarantine ward in two seconds,


ripping every single one of those ratty curls out of the kid’s


head. Much as I might like to see that happen, I don’t think that


would be a prudent course of action right this second, seeing as


how these people are finally beginning to trust us.


“How do you think it spreads?” I ask him, trying to move on.


Chapter 109