Kir Bulychev’s "The Predictor of the Past," a summary Automatic translate

In Kir Bulychev’s 1994 science fiction novella from the series about the adventures of Interpol agent Cora Horvat, the heroine encounters a series of mysterious murders on two different planets. The first part of the story focuses on an investigation on the little-known Dilly, where Professor Gallieni falls victim to a crime, and Cora is temporarily dehumanized as a result of an assassination attempt. The second part moves the action to New Helvetia, where the monarch is mysteriously murdered in a locked room. Both stories are united by a search for hidden motives connected to ancient galactic secrets, personal ambitions, and forbidden technologies. The book is part of the author’s extensive series about the Galactic Police, continuing to introduce readers to the adventures of the courageous detective in various corners of the universe.

Investigation on the planet Dil-li

The action begins on the harsh, snow-covered planet Dil-li. Inspector Cora Orvat arrives to investigate the murder of the Xerian archaeologist Professor Gallieni. A powerful explosion occurs right in the spaceport hall. Regaining consciousness in the hospital after the disaster, Cora discovers that, due to the lack of other backup bodies, her brain was transplanted into the brain shell of the professor’s wife, Papa Gallieni, who died of a stroke and resembled a giant chicken. Local doctor Murad Kshot and administrator Gregg an-Groggi, nicknamed "Dead Head," report that Interpol demands immediate continuation of the investigation, despite her peculiar appearance. The situation is complicated by the fact that, according to Xerian physiological laws, Cora is obligated to lay the deceased professor’s eggs within two weeks.

On her very first night in the hospital, Cora is attacked by a man wearing a sock on his head and armed with a knife. Thanks to her experience as a detective, she fights back, but the attacker manages to escape. The next morning, administrator Gregg promises to assign her security. Cora goes to the excavation site, where she meets Orsekki’s young assistant, a bright copper-and-gold rooster. He shows off his finds: counting balls, a beak file, and a piece of an ancient giant eggshell. There’s a conflict at the excavation site — Gregg wants to shut down the work to make way for the construction of a grand hotel by the Vgrai company. Near the riverbank where the professor’s body with broken flight feathers was found, Apolidoro and Gregg argue over the terms of the contract.

Soon, Cora escapes from the hospital and sneaks into the archaeologists’ vacant home. She discovers that the camera and film are missing from the deceased man’s office. There, she is attacked again — an unknown assailant knocks her unconscious with an encyclopedia volume and takes a strange photograph depicting the outline of a boat. Cora is found by Orsecchi. At the scene of the attack, the detective discovers a Vgrai company badge. Suspicion falls on Gregg, who loses his composure at the mention of the badge. Meanwhile, the professor’s body disappears from the morgue and is later found completely plucked in a local swamp. Merchant José María Herredia confesses that the unknown assailant planted a sack of white feathers for stuffing pillows on him.

Suddenly, Cora goes into labor, and in the hospital garden, she lays three enormous eggs, after which Orsekki takes charge of the hatchlings. At dawn, Cora decides to fly over the excavation site. From a bird’s eye view, in the slanting rays of the sun, she spots the gigantic silhouette of an ancient ship, the "Skybird," embedded in the ground on the plateau. The discovery of this relic will forever seal the plateau off from construction workers. Gregg an-Groggy, spotting it in the sky, attempts to shoot down Cora’s helicopter with a blaster, but crashes into a cliff during the dogfight. Before his death, the administrator confesses to attempting to kill Cora to save the construction project, but denies killing the professor.

The denouement comes in the hospital. Cora realizes that the chicks hatched copper-gold and black, while the late professor was pure white. She deduces that Orsecchi is the true father. The assistant confesses to stealing and plucking Gallieni’s body to hide the chicks’ plumage from the committee, as adultery on Xero is punishable by pariahship. But he didn’t commit the murder. Witness José Júnior says he saw the professor stabbed to death by his own wife, Papa Gallieni, tormented by fear of exposure. She also planted the bomb at the spaceport, after which she suffered a stroke. Orsecchi takes the bastard children and flies to the Galactic Center, and Cora returns to her restored human body.

The Mystery of the Locked Room on New Helvetia

After a short rest in the Vologda village of P’yany Bor, Commissar Milodar summons Cora to Interpol’s Antarctic headquarters. On the planet New Helvetia, the legitimate monarch, Eguadius II, who had developed science and invited Earth specialists, has been assassinated. His reactionary nephew, Duagim, seized power, accused him of conspiracy, and arrested two hundred and forty Earthlings. Eguadius was found in a tower bedroom, locked from the inside with titanium bolts, with two skewers, produced by the Makhachkala-based Magomayev Artel, protruding from his chest. Cora travels to the planet disguised as a dim-witted detective, pretending to be interested only in jewelry, in order to lull the dictator’s vigilance.

At the Burns spaceport, she is met by Earth Consul Nkomo, a representative of the PLO, and Police Chief Audii Red. The latter attempts to get Cora drunk on mushroom liqueur and starts a shooting, in which he loses his own toes. Waking up in the hospital, Cora plays dumb in front of the caretaker guards. At a reception with the plump, red-haired Duagim the First, the heroine secures permission to inspect the tower. The monarch assigns her the elegant adjutant Gim as a guide. The wounded Audii Red, in a wheelchair, also accompanies them. An inspection of the bedroom confirms the room is completely sealed: the window is narrow, there is no fireplace, and the bolts are locked from the inside. The colonel emphasizes that the skewers are irrefutable evidence against the Earthlings.

Having evaded surveillance with a stunt, Cora sneaks into the Earth embassy and asks Nkomo to urgently send a request to Makhachkala about the skewers’ buyers. That evening, at a ball, the late king’s former secretary, Iracium, discreetly passes Cora a note about a secret meeting. In hotel room 64, Cora meets with Iracium and the late king’s mistress, Lady Sindika. They reveal that Eguadius was gathering dirt on his nephew and trusted the fortune teller Parfan, who can peer into the past. At that moment, Duagim blows up the car carrying Iracium and Sindika under the hotel windows. The Emperor bursts into Cora’s room, but during the scuffle, the detective pushes him into a mirrored closet.

After Duaghim leaves, the real fortune teller, Alexander Parfan, emerges from the closet, wearing a robe and nightcap. He hands Cora a mysterious package and asks her to hide it, mentioning a space-time paradox. Cora hides the package, which turns out to contain a videotape. That night, dressed in a camouflage suit, she sneaks into Parfan’s country villa, "Moonlight." There, she is greeted by a huge, fluffy cat named Bell, and the owner himself is lying drunk on the floor by the fireplace. Cora inspects the laboratory’s control room and discovers three beds: a luxurious four-poster bed, a narrow girl’s cot, and an exact wooden replica of the cot from the murdered king’s bedroom. The beds are entangled with power cables.

Suddenly, the villa is stormed by guards led by Duagim and Audiy Red. Kolokolchik the Cat helps Cora escape through the fence. In the morning, Duagim summons Cora and shows her an intercepted cosmogram from Earth: skewers were purchased in Makhachkala by Adjutant Gim. The Emperor declares Parfan an Earth spy. Gim confesses to having bought them as a gift for his beloved Parfan, after which Duagim brutally beats the adjutant with a whip. Cora demands an investigative experiment in the royal bedchamber. Settling down on a giant bed under a pink canopy, the detective finds a remote control on the headboard and presses the "return" button. She is instantly transported through time and space — to the night of the assault on Parfan’s villa.

In the lab, Cora finds Parfan, but Duagim transports himself into the room via a duplicate bed and stabs the fortune teller with a skewer. Bell the Cat lunges at the emperor, wounding him. Cora takes the cat, jumps onto the late Eguadius’s bed in the corner, and presses a button, returning to her own time. In the hotel’s blue lounge, with the help of the young dukes, Cora plays Parfan’s tape. In the recording, the fortune teller explains the workings of the illegal time machine: plunging into the past requires colossal energy, and the duplicate beds in the courtyard and lab served as launchers. In the tape, Parfan accuses Duagim of murder.

A hologram of Commissar Milodar appears, recording the accusations. Cora uncovers the mystery of the locked-room murder: Duagim and Gim infiltrated the empty tower during the day and vertically attached skewers to the king’s bed. That night, Eguadius used the bed-translator in Parfan’s villa to transport himself to the bedroom. Upon materialization, his body impaled itself on the skewers. The bolts remained locked, as no one physically entered the room that night. Caught red-handed, Duagim signs a decree liberating the earthlings and abdicating the throne. Cora takes Bell the cat and returns to Earth, where she learns from the news that a republic has been declared on New Helvetia.