"That's right Flynn, bring it down here with you, and never mind what I want it for, I just want it! I'll explain it to you when you beam down. Now move!"

Dr McCoy flipped the communicator shut, annoyed. Spock was muttering the thoughts of the silicon being before him through his mind meld, and the doctor watched, thinking to himself.

He was a doctor, not a bricklayer. However, he did have a few ideas of how to fix this living rock…creature….thing. He had called down Maewyn Aidan Flynn not only because she was the Head Geoscientist of the ship, but also because she usually had enough sense to be as logical as Spock in these type of situations, only without the Vulcan's tendency to contradict everything Dr. McCoy said. Besides, it was always nice to have her near him as he worked, and he knew this creature would fascinate her. He looked up to see the faint outline of Maewyn as she materialized.

Maewyn Aidan Flynn, Head Geoscientist of the starship enterprise, was one of the ablest crewmembers aboard. Once, when the ship's power gave out she had completed work outside of the starship while Scotty worked on the inside, which had prevented an explosion. Dr. McCoy smiled, thinking to himself, she was stunningly beautiful. He watched as her perfect hourglass silhouette of shimmering particles solidified and she stood before him.

Maewyn smiled at Dr. McCoy, tossing her auburn hair out of her strikingly green eyes, and glanced at damaged reddish boulder he seemed to be leaning against.

"So, you asked me to bring this down so that you could mend a broken rock formation?" She asked grinning. Then she started back as the Horta moved slightly.

"What in the name of…? What is this thing?" She quickly regained her composure as Dr. McCoy grabbed the bucket of thermal concrete out of her hands.

"It's a Horta." He said simply as he began to apply the concrete to the damaged flesh of the silicon creature. He glanced over to see that she had that look in her eye, the look she got whenever they discovered something new and unheard of before, that she could be the first scientist to examine and study it. The look was inquisitive and curious, a look of complete pleasure and delight. Dr. McCoy loved to see that look in her eye, as he turned away, she took her tricorder out and began to run scans of the Horta.

Captain Kirk came up from behind Maewyn and laid a hand on her shoulder, holding what looked like a broken piece of a hollow silicon sphere. Kirk began to explain all that had happened and all that they had found out, and as Maewyn pieced things together in her mind she came to the conclusion that the object that he held in his hand was a fragment of a Horta egg that the miners had destroyed. This creature, a living rock, fascinated her, a geological oddity that had never been seen anywhere in space. The things that Mr. Spock had discovered through his mind meld with the creature were more illuminating evidence for this creature's life and ways than could ever be discovered by conventional means.

Kirk finished explaining and retrieved Spock from his state of mind meld with the Horta to discuss the eggs that he had found. At that moment, the miners came blasting in, ready to kill the Horta on sight. Maewyn and Spock drew their phasers quickly until the Captain got the miners to calm down enough to explain things to them. Then, Dr. McCoy having healed the Horta, and the miners having agreed to live on peaceful terms with the silicon creatures, the Enterprise crew beamed back to the ship.

Maewyn had collected a piece of the Horta's flesh in a specimen jar in her shoulder bag lab kit, along with pieces of the eggs as well. As she materialized on the ship, she was eager to get to testing them.

Dr. McCoy looked down at her hands squinting, and then he grabbed her hand as she stepped off the platform. Maewyn turned quickly, looking inquisitively into his eyes.

"Flynn, when was the last time you got some sleep?"

"How should I know…Why?"

Dr. McCoy let her hand rest facing upwards in the palm of his hand, her hand was shaking in spasms. He looked at her, concerned.

"You should wait until tomorrow to do those tests, you aren't lucid enough to perform those tests accurately or safely at the moment."

"I'll be fine, I can't wait until later. This is important!" She turned to leave, and tripped.

Dr. McCoy caught her in his arms with surprise. "See, you'll have to wait till tomorrow…I…" He found himself looking into her eyes, just inches away. Finding himself hesitant to release her from the accidental embrace, he asked

"You won't do those tests tonight will you, you'll wait until tomorrow?"

Maewyn smiled weakly, "All right, you're the doctor." After pausing thoughtfully for a moment, she abruptly kissed him on the cheek and fled.

For a moment he stood still, lifting his finger to his cheek stunned, and then smiling contentedly, he departed to prepare for a good night's rest.

However, Maewyn, with her headstrong spirit, went directly to her lab. Getting on her lab gear, she placed a piece of the Horta flesh into a test tube and placed that into a centrifuge where the acid secreting glands were separated from the rest of the silicon. Once separated, she began to agitate them into secreting the acid, until she had a test tube full. Maewyn stared at the pale blue acid, which she now held up to the light. To help her find the concentration and therein the PH of the acid, she poured some into a cuvette and put that into a colorimeter. While the colorimeter was calibrating she decided to dilute the acid. She filled a beaker with 10ml of acid, and proceeded to pour 50ml of water into the beaker.

Leonard McCoy was startled from his sleep by alarm sirens and flashing lights. Kirk was calling the communicator on his bedside table; he pushed the button that answered it.

"Yes, what is it Jim?"

"There was an explosion in one of the labs."

"How many were hurt?"

"Fortunately there was only one person in the lab at the time…unfortunately…"

"Oh no…."

"…...unfortunately it was Maewyn."

"I'm on my way to sickbay immediately, Jim."

Jumping out of bed and throwing on his uniform, he practically ran to sickbay.

When he arrived, Sulu and Chekhov were just arriving with Maewyn on a stretcher. They had been in one of the adjacent botany labs when the explosion had occurred and had set off the alarm. When they ran into the lab, they had found Maewyn soaked in acid and boiling water, which they had quickly washed off with the emergency shower. After hearing a brief account from Sulu and Chekhov, Leonard turned his attention to Maewyn. Her skin was pink from the acid and boiling water, it was lucky that Sulu and Chekhov had quickly washed it off or there would have been worse damage. A large shard of a glass beaker was protruding from her shoulder, and where safety glasses had not protected her face there were scratches and cuts. She opened her eyes slightly, looking up at him, and smiled softly.

"I should have listened to you, I'm sorry." She whispered weakly.

"You knew that you were too tired to attempt anything like this. Why did you...what happened?"

"I forgot the principle rule of diluting acids."

"And what is that?"

"Never EVER add water to an acid, only add acid to water"

He had lifted her off the stretcher and onto a cot; she winced as her shoulder bent slightly and let out a gasp of pain.

"I'm going to have to take this out now….here's a shot of painkiller" He injected the solution into her arm, and shot a numbing solution into her shoulder. "You won't feel a thing!" His smile was pained.

Maewyn half smiled and closed her eyes. He began to work on her arm. In no time, he had repaired her shoulder and healed the cuts on her face. The pink acid burn on her skin was beginning to get fainter.

He sat next to her bed uneasily watching her sleep. A few times, Maewyn woke and tossed around, then seeing Dr. McCoy beside her she would smile at him and close her eyes, drifting back to sleep once more.