Title: Effervescent Essence
Author: Harper's aka Weird_Peace
Rating: PG-13
Synopsis: Sequel to And You Thought Larvae Were Bad. I highly suggest you read the first fiction.
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, but I love 'em anyways.
Spoilers: Season Two spoilers.  

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"No Hulen, I don't-"

"I'm Yaedek."

"Sorry." Harper sighed, trying to figure out how the caretakers could somehow tell all the little blue aliens apart. "No Yaedek, I don't think that messing with the slipstream drive is a such a good idea."

"But I think that-"

"You must be 15 years of age to enter the slipstream drive without an adult," Harper ran over and pushed a group away from a circuit board they had managed to open. "And you must be that old to work on one as well."

"It doesn't say that in any handbook I've read," one helpful 4-year old pointed out.

"It's in the Harper Handbook, written by Seamus Harper." Harper pointed to himself. "I have the power to change any and all rules, and they will be followed or else enforced."

"I want to see this handbook to make sure it's been approved by the proper authorities." Yaedek crossed his arms. Harper just about pulled out his hair.

"Why don't you go play with somebody else?" he asked the 18 children bouncing around his quarters.

"But you know so much stuff! We wanna learn!" Harper groaned, wishing they'd just disappear. Two more days until they reached Sinti. The first day had been hell.

The Perseids had annoyed everyone, but they seemed especially attached to Trance and Harper. The crew believed it was because Harper was the genius engineer, and Trance was something interesting that the children had never seen before. Harper had requested Rommie to help out, but the children had practically ripped her apart by the time he had come back with some entertainment for them. She had stayed as far from them as she possibly could since then.

"Where's Tyr with lunch?" Frenas tugged at Harper's pants.

"That's a good question. Where is the big lug?"

"Big lug!" Frenas ran around, shouting the nickname. "Big lug! Tyr's a lug, Tyr's a lug!"

"Shhhh...Stop that!" Harper tried to call him down, but the rest of the children had joined in the chant.

A scream came from across the room. Harper looked up to see a rather large cart falling over into a group of the perseids. He dashed across room and grabbed theshelves of the packed cart, finding it was a lot heavier than he anticipated. The children dashed away from him, but a gauss gun Harper had been working on fell from the top of the shelf, hitting one on the back of the head. He went down, a few steps from getting out of the range of the falling cart.

"Somebody help him!" Harper yelled out to the other children, but they all stood back in shock, a few crying. He strained with the effort to hold the thing up, but knew that if he didn't let go soon, his arms would give. He'd be hurt, possibly crushed with the child.

The load had suddenly become lighter. Harper glanced to his left to see Tyr pushing against the cart.

"Go!" the Nietzschean yelled. Harper didn't have to be told twice. He scooped up the fallen child and ran out of the way as fast as he could. Once Tyr saw everyone was out of the area, he let go and ducked to the side, almost getting his leg caught. He looked from the cart, to Harper, and back to the cart.

"What?" Harper looked around. "Is there something on my face?"

"How'd you hold that up boy? Even I wouldn't have lasted more than an hour against that, and you don't have nearly the strength I do." Tyr stared at the cart as if it would unlock some hidden mystery.

"Gee thanks." He shrugged. "I dunno, maybe all that eating healthy for those 4 and a half months paid off." He didn't mention to Tyr that he thought he had seen a purple hand gripping the side of the cart. The big guy would only give him a lecture on his obsession with the wrong kinds of women. "We need to get him to medical."

"I can do that." Rommie dodged as three tykes jumped at her. She gingerly took the injured one from Harper. "Dylan and Tyr need to round up the ones that escaped. Tyr left the door open when he rushed in."

"And had I stopped to consider it, Harper and that child you are holding may not be in as good as shape as they are now." Tyr crossed his arms stubbornly.

"You're forgetting to thank me for telling you what was going on," Rommie teased him.

"How many and are the tracing devices we put on them working?" Harper interupted.

"Five and only for three of them." Rommie smiled, walking quickly out of the room. "Good luck. Dylan's already started."

"Their lunches are outside." Tyr patted Harper on the shoulder. "I'll hurry back."

Harper looked around the room, the most of the litter still scared from seeing their friend almost die. He sighed and started telling them a story to calm them down.

The first three were easy enough to find. It took another hour to find and hold on to the other two. Tyr came back, the last one tucked tightly under one arm.

"He bites," Tyr growled, holding up one arm covered with teeth marks.

"Yeah, Frenas will do that." Harper showed his own rewards for trying to punish the children as Tyr put the little guy down.

"By the way," Tyr said casually, "big lug?"

"Heh. Children and their imaginations." Harper backed away as Tyr smiled ferally at him. "Tyr, it was a joke, honestly."

An hour later, Rommie returned with the formerly injured child to find Harper tied up with a conducting coil; the perseids were decorating his clothing, face, and hair with finger paints while Tyr read a book nearby.