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

“Stop it,” I whisper, climbing up on


“I’m not—” he starts, and then he


finds the handle of a drawer beneath the stirrups and leans over,


pulls it out to see what’s inside. “Hey, this stuff is


“Dylan,” I warn. Without looking at


me, he reaches back and eases a hand up my thigh in an effort to


distract me so he can rummage through the drawer without further


protest. Before he gets too far, though, I knock his hand away.


“You shouldn’t be rooting through their stuff.”


counter and laughs. “Just don’t break anything,” he says, opening


the case. He takes out the lancets again, the hemoscanner, a


handful of cotton swabs. “After you asked me if I was sick—over the


radio, remember?” I nod, slap Dylan’s hand away from me again, it’s


creeping steadily up my leg. Shanley pretends he doesn’t notice and


Chapter 111