The lizard form of Connors, sequestered within his laboratory, had barely slept for three consecutive days. The driven scientist had entered one of his focused states, the kind where time became irrelevant and only results mattered.
If it were not for the three meals delivered punctually each day by the automatic servo robots, meals that Connors consumed with mechanical efficiency while never stopping his work, there would have been no evidence he was maintaining even basic biological functions.
Nolan, who made a point of occasionally walking past the laboratory to check on his old teacher through the reinforced observation windows, had even begun seriously planning to force his way inside and physically interrupt Connors' obsessive research. The concern was becoming genuine worry.
After all, whether the Panacea proved immediately usable was ultimately a secondary consideration. Important, yes, but not worth destroying themselves over.
However, if one of the already scarce scientific research personnel under his command, this "Bio Sage" as Raditus had mockingly but accurately dubbed Connors, went completely insane from overwork and sleep deprivation, then Nolan would truly have nowhere to seek recourse. You couldn't simply recruit another geneticist of Connors' caliber.
Fortunately, Professor Connors' manic experimental state did not persist indefinitely. His body and mind possessed limits even he could not ignore forever.
Seventy-two hours after initially receiving the Panacea samples, the breakthrough finally came.
Nolan, who had completed his daily physical training regimen and showered away the sweat, was currently reading in the hall of the base. He'd been working his way through various texts, expanding his knowledge base systematically.
The material varied depending on his mood. Sometimes he studied historical accounts and tactical analyses. Today he would occasionally change his focus to examine numerous documents from Imperial Heavy Industries, familiarizing himself with the business operations he nominally controlled.
At this moment, a middle-aged man with thick blond hair that seemed almost too vibrant to be natural walked out from the dimly lit underground passage. His two arms, deliberately positioned to be clearly visible, were completely intact. Flesh and bone, no scales, no claws. Perfectly human.
A broad smile stretched across his face, the expression carrying an almost manic edge of triumph and relief.
That was Connors, freshly emerged from his laboratory cocoon, transformed back from lizard to man.
The professor crossed the floor with energetic strides that suggested he'd somehow gained energy rather than depleted it during his marathon research session. He approached the metal round table where Nolan sat surrounded by scattered documents and data-slates.
When Connors reached the table's edge, he lifted both arms and placed them heavily on the metal surface with deliberate emphasis. The solid thunk of flesh striking metal echoed in the quiet hall.
But these weren't his current arms. These were severed limbs, preserved specimens, each with completely different skin tones. One pale, one darker. Evidence of his experiments.
Nolan narrowed his eyes slightly as he studied the appendages carefully, examining them with clinical detachment. The flesh looked healthy, perfectly formed, showing no signs of the corruption or mutation that had plagued earlier attempts.
He glanced up at Connors, who radiated an almost palpable aura of excitement barely contained beneath a professional veneer. Nolan took a deep, deliberate breath and spoke in a serious tone that cut through the professor's enthusiasm.
"Teach, if there is a next time you isolate yourself like this, I will forcibly arrange for an automatic servo robot to be assigned as your experimental supervisor. Someone, or something, will be watching to ensure you eat, sleep, and don't literally work yourself to death."
The statement had nothing to do with maintaining chain of command or asserting authority. This wasn't about the team's operational structure or following orders.
Nolan simply didn't want to witness a friend, someone he genuinely cared about, ultimately transform due to prolonged and reckless human experimentation into nothing more than a pool of bloody, writhing biological mud. The image was visceral, horrifying, and entirely too plausible given Connors' tendencies.
Hearing Nolan's unusually serious tone, recognizing the genuine concern beneath the stern words, Connors allowed the manic smile to fade from his features. His facial expression gradually restored itself to something more appropriately sober.
He nodded heavily, once, the gesture carrying real weight and sincerity.
"Nolan, thank you for your concern and understanding. I know I have been far too self-indulgent regarding certain aspects of my research methodology." Connors spoke with surprising formality, choosing his words carefully. "I promise not to make the same mistake again. I can make that commitment now because the knot that has been plaguing me for so many years has finally been untied."
He paused for dramatic effect, allowing the tension to build before delivering the news he'd been desperate to share.
"The limb regeneration potion has been successfully developed and proven effective!"
Even as Connors tried valiantly to suppress the smile threatening to split his face, to maintain some semblance of scientific professionalism, the effort proved futile. His face distorted with barely restrained joy, features twisting until the expression almost stretched the wrinkles on his forehead flat. The emotions simply refused to be contained.
Nolan seemed to have immediately forgotten his stern warning from mere seconds ago. The shift was instantaneous, concern transforming into eager curiosity.
He carelessly threw down the Imperial text he'd been studying, the book landing on the table with a solid thump. His full attention focused on Connors like a spotlight.
A trace of burning desire to understand, to explore this breakthrough, appeared clearly in his eyes.
"So the Panacea I produced was genuinely functional? The synthesis worked?" Nolan leaned forward slightly. "And the effects are far beyond even our optimistic projections?"
Nolan's questions seemed to open floodgates that had been straining against accumulated pressure for three straight days. Connors had been working in isolation, making discoveries with no one to share them with, building up a desperate need to explain his findings to someone who would understand their significance.
He unconsciously licked his lips, mouth suddenly dry, and began speaking in an almost uncontrollable rush of words.
"Nolan, you are not a scientist with extensive theoretical knowledge and practical research experience. You don't fully understand!" The words came out more as excited statement than criticism. "The existence of the Panacea is a profound mystery! A miracle whose depths are nearly impossible to fathom! And those who created the Standard Construction Template for the Panacea may have genuinely touched the boundary of what we might call 'divinity'!"
Connors' hands moved expressively as he spoke, gesturing to illustrate concepts that words alone couldn't adequately convey.
"You haven't witnessed it with your own eyes, haven't seen what I've seen through the analysis equipment. The genetic molecular formula contained within a single Panacea crystal is as vast and magnificent as the visible stars in the universe itself. Countless molecular formulas that I have never encountered in any literature, sequences I wouldn't have dared to even theorize about, were all presented one by one before me in their perfect, functional complexity!"
His voice carried a note of almost religious awe.
"It's almost laughable that my approach was essentially a helpless move bordering on the brute-force exhaustive method. I extracted carefully selected portions of the molecular formulas from the Panacea and painstakingly recombined them with my previous limb regeneration potion. Trial and error, over and over, adjusting and refining until the unknown molecular sequences from the Panacea completely replaced the problematic segments that triggered the uncontrolled lizard transformation."
Connors paused, and something shifted in his expression. The manic excitement dimmed, replaced by something more melancholy.
"Yes, rather than claiming this represents a true study or understanding of the Panacea's mechanisms, it would be far more accurate to say that I still know essentially nothing about it. I've merely learned to copy a fraction of its function without comprehending the underlying principles."
As Connors' voice trailed off into silence, a faint bitter smile appeared on his face. The expression carried genuine loss, the disappointment of a scientist who'd glimpsed something magnificent but remained unable to truly grasp it.
Nolan, who had been responsibly listening without interruption to his mentor's entire explanation, allowed a slight smile to appear on his own features. The expression was understanding, sympathetic even.
He crossed his hands together, fingers interlacing, and leaned back in his chair. He stared directly at Connors while speaking in a deliberately comforting tone.
"Oh, it's perfectly fine, Professor. According to what Raditus has explained to me on multiple occasions, usually while complaining, this phenomenon is called a 'technological black box.' It's the so-called state of knowing the what but not the why." Nolan's explanation was simplified but accurate. "I know the precise method and exact sequence required to manufacture this item, but I don't understand what fundamental principles allow it to function, and therefore I cannot safely modify the manufacturing process without risking complete failure."
He gestured vaguely in the direction of the foundry floors below.
"Raditus has encountered far too many similar situations during its long service to the Mechanicus. In fact, some of the weapons and equipment it manufactures for us right now fall into this category. If you were to ask it to explain the underlying technological principles in detail, the servo skull would probably prefer to face another squad of Necron Gauss weaponry rather than attempt the explanation."
Nolan's tone turned slightly teasing, trying to lighten the professor's mood.
"If you need help processing this sense of intellectual limitation, you're welcome to discuss it with Raditus. Though I should warn you that the Tech-Priest's primary coping mechanism when encountering technological mysteries involves either praising the Machine God extensively or singing devotional hymns to the Omnissiah. Neither approach is particularly satisfying from a scientific standpoint."
Hearing Nolan's genuine comfort, and especially the final teasing observation about Raditus's religious tendencies, both Connors and Nolan found themselves subconsciously smiling at each other. The moment of shared amusement helped dispel the lingering melancholy.
They tacitly agreed to move past the topic of intellectual limitations.
Afterward, Connors began to systematically introduce Nolan to his initial research findings regarding the Panacea itself and the practical effects of his newly developed limb regeneration potion.
The core conclusions were remarkable.
The Panacea was indeed one hundred percent genuine and effective, exactly as the STC's description had promised. No exaggeration, no marketing hyperbole, simply objective fact.
And it could indeed successfully cure all diseases currently known to humanity, at least all those they'd been able to test against. The scope was almost incomprehensible.
After all, even a modified limb regeneration potion that incorporated only a small portion of the unknown molecular formulas from the Panacea had easily cured Connors' chronic hair loss and the cervical spondylosis that had troubled him for many years. Conditions he'd simply learned to live with had vanished overnight.
Judging from the evidence before them, from Connors' lustrous golden hair that looked twenty years younger and his entire body's return to complete normalcy, the implications extended even further.
Perhaps the Panacea could not only cure all diseases as advertised. It would also grant the user a regeneration ability that, while not reaching superhuman levels, was certainly not insignificant for baseline humans. Accelerated healing, rapid recovery, enhanced resilience.
As for the modified formula's capabilities, after extensive discussion, both Nolan and Connors agreed it deserved a new designation reflecting its broader applications.
The potion had been renamed from the somewhat limited "Limb Regeneration Potion" to the far more ambitious "All Souls Resurrection Potion."
If Connors' personal experience and experimental data proved accurate under broader testing, then the potion's capabilities were genuinely extraordinary.
No matter what kind of amputation or traumatic injury someone had suffered, no matter how severe the damage, it could be reversed. Even a dying person who had been catastrophically wounded, someone with only a single breath remaining, teetering on death's threshold, could be saved with relative ease.
If this held true across all cases, then Nolan would be able to respond far more effectively and with greater calm when faced with the bloody and terrifying reality of future conflicts. Wars would still extract their costs, but death would no longer be quite so permanent.
Moreover, the emergence of the Panacea and its derivative potions also provided Nolan and Imperial Heavy Industries with an unprecedented opportunity to extend their hidden influence deep into all corners of the world. Medicine, more than weapons or money, could open doors that would otherwise remain sealed.
However, all of this remained merely a collection of ambitious ideas that Nolan had just begun brainstorming. The concepts were exciting but vague, lacking structure or detailed planning.
There wasn't even a basic strategic framework yet, no clear roadmap for implementation. If he wanted to fully execute any of these schemes, the effort would likely need to be delayed until after the second base had been completed and made operational. They needed infrastructure before they could change the world.
At this moment, Nolan and Connors, both intellectually stimulated by their discussion and the discoveries they were processing, continued talking enthusiastically for quite some time. They explored implications, debated applications, considered risks and opportunities.
Then, in the middle of outlining a particularly complex scenario, Nolan suddenly paused. His expression shifted as though he'd abruptly remembered something important, something personal rather than strategic.
He turned to face Connors directly and asked with careful casualness, "Teah, can the All Souls Resurrection Potion be safely used on a metahuman?"
Connors appeared slightly startled by the seemingly random question at first, brow furrowing in momentary confusion.
Then understanding dawned. He also remembered Jessica Jones, the metahuman who was still lying in the hospital, her condition stable but showing no signs of natural improvement.
Both Connors and Nolan fell into thoughtful silence simultaneously, their minds racing through possibilities and protocols.
After a moment, Connors spoke almost absently, his attention already shifting toward laboratory considerations. "There's no theoretical reason it wouldn't work, but we'd need to verify dosage calculations and run compatibility tests to be certain."
Then he immediately stood up from his chair with sudden decisiveness and began moving rapidly toward the laboratory. His stride was purposeful, almost rushed, the gait of a man who'd just realized he had more work to do.
Nolan blinked at the abrupt departure, then slowly rose to his feet as well. He followed his mentor at a more measured pace, trailing behind as Connors disappeared into the underground passage.
"If the All Souls Resurrection Potion cannot be used due to insufficient experimental data or unforeseen complications," Nolan thought silently as he walked, working through the logic carefully, "then there should be no problem with using the proven Panacea itself. The original formula is verified effective, even if we don't fully understand its mechanisms."