Barbara Larssen Yeager

When In the Balance began, Barbara was married to American physicist Jens Larssen. When Enrico Fermi dispatched Larssen to Washington, DC to petition the government to continue funding their project to build an atomic bomb despite the tremendous resource constraints imposed by the invasion of the Race, Barbara met Sam Yeager in Chicago. She fled the city along with Yeager, Ullhass, and Ristin when it fell to the Race.

Barbara experienced a panic when the Race's killercraft strafed the ship her party was taking across the Great Lakes, and had sex with Sam in her confusion. She bitterly regretted this soon after and resented Sam for a time, but eventually came to realize that Jens was most likely dead and pursued a relationship with Sam. They were married in Chugwater, Wyoming. Barbara became pregnant on their wedding night, and learned of her pregnancy the same day she learned Jens was still alive and was looking forward to being reunited with her.

She told Jens that she would not take him back but would remain faithful to the father of her child. This embittered Jens, who gradually became consumed with rage and was ultimately killed by US soldiers while attempting to defect to the Race.

Sam and Barbara's son, Jonathan Yeager, was born during the war, and the young family travelled the wartorn country, rubbing elbows with many of the most important figures in the nation. After the war they settled in Southern California, where Barbara helped Sam raise the Lizard hatchlings Mickey and Donald. She was also one of the people Sam entrusted with his discovery that Earl Warren had ordered the infamous attack on the Colonization Fleet, information she threatened to divulge if Sam was harmed by the government.

Barbara was present at her son's 1965 wedding to Karen. She died several years before Sam entered cold sleep in 1978. Pain at her passing was a major reason Sam was willing to enter cold sleep, despite the technology's being in its infancy.