The Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly-$\alpha$) forest is a unique probe of cosmology and the intergalactic medium at high redshift and small scales. The statistical power of the ongoing Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) demands precise theoretical tools to model the Ly-$\alpha$ forest. We present a hybrid effective field theory forward model in redshift space that leverages the accuracy of nonlinear particle displacements computed using the $N$-body simulation suite abacussummit with the predictive power of an analytical, perturbative bias forward model in the framework of the effective field theory. The residual noise between the model and the simulated Ly-$\alpha$ field has a nearly white (scale- and orientation-independent) power spectrum on quasilinear scales, substantially simplifying its modeling compared to a purely perturbative description. As a consequence of the improved control over the 3D Ly-$\alpha$ forest stochasticity, we find agreement between the modeled and the true power spectra at the 5% level down to scales of $k_{\max }\lesssim 1h{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$. This procedure offers a promising path toward constructing efficient and accurate emulators to predict large-scale clustering summary statistics for full-shape cosmological analyses of Ly-$\alpha$ forest data from both DESI and its successor, DESI-II.

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• Large scale structure of the Universe