Drim hoisted Nathym’s body onto the surgical table down in the secret lab—or what remained of it. A large chunk of his body was entirely ripped away. From above his navel down to his thighs. All those organs and everything in between had been consumed by the monstrous mouth.
On the man’s right side, there was enough of his waist remaining to connect down to the rest of his body. But his left leg was completely disconnected with nothing to latch hold of. Farian sprang into action immediately, doing what he could to prevent further decay of Nathym’s body, and Valen was called to hold his blood in place and keep any more from leaking out. Once she had a good handle, The Bloodletter began circulating it through his body herself, in place of a beating heart.
Drim and Ahvra both knelt by his side. The Witch continued to grasp hold of his time, freezing it in stasis. And the king endlessly fed life energy into Nathym’s soul, keeping the flame lit that was ever-close to being snuffed out. The others swarmed around them, placing the bits of Nathym’s body that they’d retrieved onto the table, approximately where they believed it should go. And Mallea came with a bucket of his blood that she’d mopped up that Valen transfused back into his body.
Their first thought had been for Ahvra to turn back the clock on his injury, as she’d done hundreds or thousands of times before. But not enough of him remained. They’d dug into the monster's maw, to try and retrieve what had been taken, but it was unrecoverable. Even just a few minutes inside the beast, and his organs and flesh had begun to decay and digest. After seeing what had happened with Xard’s arm, it was far too risky to attempt using it.
That meant Nathym’s body had to be rebuilt and substituted. Unfortunately, as part of a unique species, they couldn’t use regular human organs as replacements, as they’d be incompatible with his Fiend blood. Farian touted research into synthetic organs that had been underway, but after a quick analysis, they were still years away from completion. And even if they could acquire them, there was still the rest of his flesh and bodily systems that had to be replaced.
This meant the answer they had to look towards was more mechanical, but unfortunately none of them had enough experience or knowhow for something so complex. Itsy was called into consult, and while she had some rough ideas of how to keep his basic functions going, it was nothing that could be appropriately deemed as living.
However the woman was able to build a pump to keep his blood flowing and heart beating, allowing Valen to step away and help in other aspects once his endless bleeding had stopped. Ultimately, though, the salvation of their irreplaceable friend was a cruel twist of ironic fate. The only one who could save him was Nathym himself.
Farian used some medical tricks to force Nathym back to consciousness. But it only lasted for a few seconds. So they did it again, and again, dozens, hundreds of times. It took a while for The Engineer to fully grasp the situation, and even longer to think up the solution.
Tize was brought in as soon as he could to sync with the man. It helped Nathym stay conscious for longer during a single sprint of time, and allowed the logical burden to be split. And since their synchronization was an exoskeleton, it would help with the work to come. While Tize couldn’t replicate any organs to help keep Nathym alive, he could still be used to help hold all the pieces together and provide a framework for rebuilding the man from scratch.
Eventually, the patient managed to shout out a complete list of everything he’d need. And Phon and Roque got to work acquiring it. They scoured the world to retrieve every piece, making any deal where they could, or stealing it where they couldn’t. When the first parts were gathered, those that could help got to work building components.
Itsy did all she could on her end, and Farian worked on the new hybrid artificial and mechanical organs with a few fellow doctors he recruited that had been working on the original project. But a lot of it, only Nathym could make it with his own hands. So over the coming days, it was an endless cycle of work and agony.
The Engineer would be forced awake, and he’d toil away at the project until his body couldn’t take it anymore, and he’d slip back into unconsciousness, back at the edge of death. Farian also forced them to take breaks between conscious bursts, to allow his body to heal naturally where it could. Alk stuck around every time awake, to limit the pain he felt and help him focus. The rest of the group rotated in and out, helping where they could.
Drim and Ahvra, however, never left his side. They didn’t let themselves sleep, or eat, or move an inch—lest they lose focus from their mission. Taking care of them became just as much of a routine for the rest. The other members of the group who couldn’t directly contribute would take turns feeding life energy into Drim that he could pass onto Nathym.
But for a while, it all felt fruitless—like no matter what they did, The Engineer was going to die anyways. There were too many close calls, too many failures. And yet, through their perseverance, the man’s condition steadily began to improve. With each new organ installed, his survivability skyrocketed, and so did his energy. The man went from seconds of consciousness, to minutes, and then hours.
It eventually got to the point that his body became entirely stable, and mostly self sufficient. While he would certainly still be considered wildly mangled and disabled in the eyes of anyone else. He was alive again. It was nearly a week before Ahvra and Drim felt comfortable leaving his side—that his flame wouldn’t extinguish and time slip away. The two of them finally returned to their own rooms, and they themselves passed out for several days.
When they returned together, Nathym looked a lot more like the man they knew. He was still bedridden, but was back in one piece, and had been moved to his own room. While the mechanical parts of his waist were still exposed, he and Mallea were working together to tailor synthetic skin that would cover it all and hide away his differences.
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“I have a few other chores I need to attend to for a bit. I’ll be back in a while,” Mallea came up with an excuse to give the three of them the room. “Please try and get some rest.”
Ahvra, Drim, and Nathym, all chatted like friends as if nothing was wrong. It was nice after all that time, yet it still felt a bit forced. They discussed what it had been like to travel to space, and what the planet had been like, then they moved on to new experiments that Ahvra wanted to perform. It was all pleasant, yet awkward, as all three of them tiptoed around the tragedy that had just happened. Eventually, Ahvra excused herself, leaving the two boys alone, saying that she was going to get more sleep.
“So uhh, I noticed there’s one part that you haven’t really worked on yet,” Drim glanced his eyes towards Nathym’s waist before immediately averting them. His voice was light, trying to change the mood of the room.
“Ah, that, yeah,” Nathym looked down at himself when he grasped the not-so-cryptic meaning. “Well, I’ll get to it eventually. But I can’t exactly say it’s a priority right now. Not exactly in the right place personally to have need of it, besides, y’know, hygienic.”
“Oh no, I get you,” Drim didn’t argue. “But it’s still interesting to think about. You could remake it however you like, maybe toy around with it and add some new functions. Become the envy of men everywhere.”
“Heh, yeah wouldn’t that be something,” Nathym leaned his head back against his pillow, amused at the idea. “Guess I’d need to work at being comfortable with girls again first. Though it hasn’t bothered me too much lately. Maybe it’s going away unconsciously, or maybe I’ve just been too stressed to worry about it.”
“Well, if there was any time to try and destress, this is it,” the king then gave an order. “I expect you to get plenty of rest once you’re done fixing your body.”
But Nathym’s face shifted from jovial to serious at hearing those words, and then he looked at his friend, boss, and ruler straight in the face. “You know I won’t do that, Drim. We finally have what we need, and you expect me to slow down?! No, there’s no time for that.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say, as soon as I can, I’m getting back to work. You’d have to throw me into one of our cells to keep me away from it, but I know how they work and could disable them easily, since I’m the one who built them after all. Or you could post guards to keep watch on me, but I’d still find a way.”
“You could only force my hand if you cast me out entirely. Which… I’d say you should do anyways. I’m the reason that mission turned into a catastrophe. It was my own selfish desires that put all of our lives at risk, and my hubris that couldn’t recognize that I was putting us in danger. Damn it! I should have stopped the moment Senli noticed something was wrong! We’d all be dead if she hadn’t been there with us.”
“But I know you won’t kick me out, Drim, because I’m still too valuable in completing your project. So to atone for my mistakes, I’ll work tirelessly until it’s complete.”
Drim scowled and then spouted an accusation, “Is that why you had Senli bring you a piece of refined Nathyum in secret when no one else was around. Don’t look surprised, she’s not the only one who can eavesdrop around here. You integrated it into your new body parts, didn’t you? I wasn’t going to say anything and trust it was for good reasons, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Yes, I absolutely did,” The Engineer didn’t even try to deny it. “Incorporating it should keep these new mechanical parts from ever breaking down or rusting for the remainder of my lifetime. While that alone is quite useful, I won’t lie and say that there aren’t other benefits.”
“The power source should keep me from really feeling tired ever again. I’ll still need to sleep, but just as a mental refresher rather than for energy, and I’ll only need to do it on occasion. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Ahvra, though, or she’d immediately want the same thing. It will also help supplement my strength that I’ve always lacked compared to other Fiends.”
“And we can also consider it a test of how the Nathyum interacts with living beings—something we needed to do regardless. First impressions: seems to be going fine, though I’m guessing a human wouldn’t be able to tolerate such a concentrated amount.”
“You’ve always been a bit stubborn, Nathym, but it’s certainly drastic action, even for you,” Drim could only sigh. “I won’t judge you for it. We’ve all done incomprehensible things in pursuit of this project, but you’ve gotten one part wrong. It’s not because of your usefulness that I won’t kick you out. You're my closest friend, and I would never abandon you.”
“And as your friend, you will listen to what I say. I won’t keep you caged up, but you’re not touching a single tool outside of this room until you’re fully healed. Don’t try to test me on it. You may think you can get around anything you’ve built, but I’ll find a way to ensure you comply, even if I have to demand it.”
“So rest well, Nathym, and recover quickly. Because you’re right. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
◆◆◆
Drim left Nathym’s bedroom, taking all of his willpower to not slam the door behind him out of frustration. But he barely made it around the corner before he was ambushed by Ahvra slamming into his legs. The man couldn’t even take a second to question what she was doing before it became obvious. Even in her smaller form, she was letting her emotions run free, possibly because she couldn’t contain them as she sobbed into his legs.
“I-I was so scared!” Ahvra cried out in anguish. “I thought we were going to lose him! We can’t lose him! We can’t lose anyone! This whole thing, this project, it’s all pointless if we all die along the way! I can’t stand it! The thought is crushing me! I’m terrified that we’re going to lose it all!”
“Me too, Ahvra,” Drim knelt down and hugged her back. “Me too. So I promise you, we’ll do everything to keep them safe. Whatever the cost, we’ll all make it through this alive and see it through to the end. As long as I’m here, as long as we’re here, we won’t let them die.”
The man picked the small girl up, carrying her over to the couch as she continued to sob into his chest. He sat there with her for what felt like hours, gently stroking her hair to help calm her down. And eventually, the tears stopped coming, but she stayed clasped to him for a while longer.
Ahvra finally slipped down from his grasp onto the floor. “Thank you,” she bowed her head. “I needed that.” The girl rubbed her face with her oversized sleeves, wiping away all the moisture as her expression steadily returned to her usual self. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an alien to dissect.”