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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Trance's passage was abruptly cut off as someone grabbed her arm and yanked her back. She didn't know or care who it was; the golden alien whipped around and slapped them as hard as she could.

Kinden stumbled back, rubbing his cheek. Trance noticed with frustration he hadn't let go. She pulled her arm with all her strength, and still the human held on.

"You certainly have a nice way of saying thank you," he retorted.

"It's my species' custom," she said sarcastically. "It means hands off!" Trance brought her hand around for another swing, but Kinden was able to duck this time.

"You still can get hurt in all that junk," he said, trying to force her to understand. Trance resorted instead to pulling out a dagger and holding it to his throat.

"And you can get hurt if you continue to hold me here." Kinden let go and backed away slowly. Trance took a few steps back, still watching him. Sure he wouldn't try and grab her again, the alien turned and sprinted towards the ruins of the building. She stood among the rubble, seemingly deep in thought, before struggling over to a specific section and starting to carefully remove the debris. A team of workers arrived at the spot a few minutes later.

"M'am," an older female made her way over to Trance, "we need you to move so we can finish mapping out the area, looking for specific faults and dangerous materials, and then determining where the survivors, if there are any..."

"There are survivors," Trance said, not stopping her work. "They're here."

"We know there were people in the building..."

"No!" This time she stopped and looked at the other woman. "They're right here." Trance pointed to the area beneath her. The worker just nodded her head, and then activated her beeping com. Even though both the woman and her co-worker kept their voices low, Trance still heard the conversation.

"I'm not going through some mental problems because I'm pregnant," she answered before the woman could ask. "I know that they're here. So either you get your friends over to this spot to start digging, or else I don't move."

"Why don't you listen to her Maurice," Kinden pulled himself up to the pile. "This lady doesn't reason much, and you know what they say about a mother's intuition."

Not knowing what else to do, the Maurice told her team to come to the site and start working. Kinden pulled Trance off to the side as more rescuers came with their machinery. Trance turned to ask him how he knew Maurice, but the human had just left.

During the wait, Trance sent a message to the Andromeda, telling them what had transpired. Unfortunately they were a few light-years away, and it would take the ship hours to receive the message and yet another day to make it to the planet.

Three hours after the crew had started working, someone let out a shout. Trance ran over, hoping for the best.

One of the workers was reaching through a hole, helping out someone who was also being pushed from the inside. Trance nearly fell over herself as Fenty, covered in a fine layer of dust, blinked as she was pulled into the fading sunlight. Her gaze fell upon Trance.

"Miss Gemini! Harper..." The Urkam was cut off as she was dragged to a nearby medic. Trance tried pushing through to her, but another line of people blocked her as they pulled out someone else. It was another Urkam; the one Trance remembered knocking out back on Jaoi. That must be Fenty's mate. Trance finally decided to stop being polite and shoved her way to the front.

"It's the weirdest thing," she overheard Maurice telling Kinden. "The large tiles and beams fell right against each other to create almost a solid room around the survivors, blocking out all the heavy debris. It's like a miracle or something."

"The last one's injured!" she heard as the final crewmen began to pull Harper out. Trance didn't know whether to be grateful for the fact Harper wasn't dead or upset at just how badly injured he might be.

With help, Harper stumbled out of the hole, holding his right arm close to him. Trance knew it was broken by the angle of the bone and the look on her friend's face.

"Trance!" he called out, spotting her, fighting against the medics that were pulling him towards a grav truck. Kinden walked over and helped Trance through the throng over to the vehicle that was transporting the three survivors to the city's hospital. Harper calmed down when he saw she was with him, allowing the medics to sit him down in a nearby chair.

"I'm the medical officer on our ship, I'll treat this one," Trance told them. Harper narrowed his eyes when they looked unconvinced and told them he would struggle more if they didn't let Trance take care of him. The doctors sighed and left to help take care of the other patients. Trance grabbed some supplies from the built in shelves and started to work.

"Well at least you don't have to kill me now," Harper cracked, his throat obviously dry. Trance grabbed some water for him. "Thanks."

"We'll see about that," she replied, her eyes shining. Harper tilted his head, noticing not only that, but the fact her hands were shaking.

"Trance, what's wrong?" He looked her over, his heart pounding as he began to put a few things together. "I knew you shouldn't have been there with those workers," he said, getting even more upset. If she had somehow gotten hurt...

"Harper, no." Trance took a few deep breaths before continuing. "You just really scared me."

"Trance, we've been through a lot worse than that. I," he emphasized, "have been through a hell of a lot worse than that."

"But things have changed," she said. Now back under control, Trance continued to work on his arm. It was pretty bad, and she needed actual scans to know how to set it correctly. For now all she could do was keep Harper comfortable and hold off infection.

"Oh?" Harper looked hopeful.

"Well you're now the father of an actual growing child," she said carefully. "And I'm beginning to see just how important this is now that I can feel it growing in me." Trance caught the second of disappointment before Harper concealed it. "And you have to admit, we've grown closer as friends because of this."

"Of course. Best friends," he said, and then started looking around the vehicle. "You know, you seem to have me mostly taken care of for now. I'm sure they could use your advice with caring for the Urkam, considering you and Fenty are in the same position and all that."

Trance wanted to protest, but Harper clearly didn't want to talk with her anymore. Suppressing a sigh, she nodded and put the things she had borrowed away before going over to check on Fenty.

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"Harper, don't strain yourself. That arm will never heal," Andromeda's hologram scolded.

"Dammit! They said that it would only take six days for this thing to mend, even with an immune system that works less than your sensors." Harper scratched the offending appendage. "And it itches!"

"Stop scratching. I doubt they were considering the fact you work constantly without giving thought to your medications or health for that matter," she replied.

"Well if you want to get logical..."

"It should be finished healing by tomorrow, if you stop working now and relax for the rest of the day." Sighing, the hologram shook her head. "Honestly, I would think you'd want time off."

"Yeah, well I'm unpredictable that way. It's one of my many cute perks." He shoved a few wires out of the way. "What did you guys do while I was on shore leave? Save an entire planet from Pyrians? Go up against a fleet of Dragan ships? Free Earth? It must have been insanely foolish to give you this amount of damage."

"You should know that not all damage comes from foolishness," Andromeda replied, motioning towards his arm. "Some of it is heroic."

"Wait a minute? Did the the warship on a mission to restore a long lost government and bring order to the universe just call something I did heroic?" He grinned.

"She's not the only one who thinks so." Harper visibly jumped as Trance game up from behind him. "Sorry. I thought you might want to see this." She handed him a flexi.

"Now what could my golden gal be giving me today?" Harper took the flexi and turned it on. After eight days, Trance and he were back on good terms. Harper easily buried the conversation under layers of quips, playfulness, and Andromeda's inner workings. Both had also been pacing around, waiting for Loki to show his scrawny tail.

"It's another thank you note from Fenty and Limas," she said. Harper rolled his eyes.

"I told them it wasn't a big deal," he said, scanning it over. "I love gratitude, but this is going overboard. There's even an attachment." He pressed a few buttons, and started smiling. Trance looked over at Andromeda, knowing she was scanning.

"It's a collection of names throughout the whole worlds, all categorized and alphabetized," she answered the alien's unspoken question.

"Yeah, it's the Big Database of Baby Names," Harper said, scanning it over. "They have Perseid, Urkam, Pyrian, Human, Nietzschean...ooooooo!" He looked up at Trance. "How does Linatnea sound?"

"I will break your arm again if you even consider that name," she responded.

"But it's so cute. And what about," Harper made some horrible screeching noise. Trance covered her ears while the AI winced. "I mean you can't go wrong with that."

"Seamus Harper!" She grabbed the flexi away.

"And then of course there's Linte and Isgrandes and..." he named off, having memorized a few. Trance shook her head and began walking off, Harper trailing behind, counting off names he had gotten from the flexi or made up.

"At least he's stopped working," Andromeda remarked before dissipating.