A summary of Sergei Lukyanenko’s "In Search of Lost Tomorrow"

This book is a science fiction novel set in 2024. It describes the fate of people forcibly integrated into an alien galactic community. Higher intelligences ruthlessly manipulate living planets to save them from cosmic threats. Fourteen elderly Earthlings are granted immortality in exchange for destroying an aggressive alien race. They live with the deep conviction that their home planet has been incinerated by an orbital strike.

Plot summary

Nikita Samoilov lives as a hermit on the planet Graa, in the megalopolis of Pundi. He belongs to a small group of earthlings called the Converted. Fifty years ago, superior alien beings granted eternal youth to a handful of elderly earthlings. In exchange, the earthlings completely exterminated the hostile Kasamni race in a local battle. Late one night, an old alien friend, Tao-John, brings the Pavlov family, a family of earthling millionaires, to Nikita. The alien is secretly hiding the wealthy couple from professional assassins. The father has copied his human consciousness into the body of an English bulldog. The children, Vasilisa and Svyatoslav, hide in the bodies of biological clones. The assassins track down the hideout. Three mercenaries of the Chro race infiltrate the armored apartment. Nikita engages them in deadly hand-to-hand combat. The enemies manage to chop the dog and the boy apart with a monomolecular whip. An unknown translucent creature sucks the water from Vasilisa’s body and escapes through a water main. Nikita himself is saved by supernatural cellular regeneration. He quickly revives from his fatal wounds. In the morning, he learns of Tao-Jon’s death in a nomadic hopper camp. Nikita takes his comrade’s metal remains after cremation and later forges the metal into a combat rapier.

Investigation and assassination attempts

Nikita personally visits the real Pavlovs at their country mansion. The wealthy couple successfully restored their identities from digital backups. During a calm conversation, unknown assailants attack the residence. Nikita saves the house’s owner, Yuri Pavlov, and survives the explosion of a drone carrying thermal needles. The hero realizes the terrible truth: he himself has become the real target. Nikita goes to the exclusive "Naked Truth" club for a secret meeting with other Converted. His longtime associates, Tian and Veronica Byrne, suddenly attempt to kill him. Driven by an overwhelming neurobiological premonition of their own doom, they face instant death if they don’t kill Nikita. Nikita blinds Veronica with a food processor and grinds Tian’s hand in a garbage disposal. The hero cuts off his own hand and escapes the restaurant. The alien scientist, Makorrsannoax, commits suicide in his prison cell. A member of the Rili race slits his throat with a sharp knife to avoid interrogation. A prison riot erupts, sparked by chemical aggression stimulants sprayed onto the prison walls. Nikita appeals to official representatives of the Big Four. This group of higher intelligences secretly controls hundreds of inhabited worlds. The Four include the powerful Coordinators, Controllers, Guardians, and Thinkers.

Meeting with the Guardians

The hero discovers the identity of Vasilisa’s mysterious killer from his friend Tonso. The Ani biorobot was deliberately sent by the Guardian faction. Nikita goes to the famous Babylon restaurant, where he is openly attacked by a mercenary from the Hopper race. The enormous restaurant building collapses into a deep pit of burning molten thermite. Nikita painfully escapes the molten pit only thanks to his regeneration. He is evacuated from the planet by his longtime friend Alex. Alex, an Earthling, serves as a leader on the Guardians’ orbital military battleship. A bloody mutiny breaks out aboard the enormous spaceship. The Thinker, a sentient telepathic fungus that hijacks other people’s nervous systems and physically controls the bodies of soldiers, attempts to seize control of the battleship. Nikita fights through the armed rebel units with Alex. The hero boldly challenges the Thinker to direct negotiations. The parasitic fungus reveals a stunning historical truth. The Earth wasn’t incinerated or torn to pieces. The planet was thrown back in time to the moment the universe emerged. The Converted remained alive in the main stream of objective time. The process of Conversion strictly required the complete absence of direct descendants on Earth. However, Nikita donated his biomaterial to a cryogenic bank before the alien invasion. His legitimate child was safely born on Earth. This living descendant created an insoluble temporal paradox. Nikita gained absolute invulnerability, capable of piercing the physical fabric of reality. The Thinker offers Nikita a cynical deal. The hero must physically destroy the leader of the Smoothers. In exchange, Nikita will receive the long-awaited return to his native green planet.

Mutiny and capitulation

Nikita swiftly returns to Graa in a military escape pod. He falls directly from orbit and miraculously survives. The planet is engulfed in a rebellion by the inferior, primitive race of Mousses. Thousands of aggressive, short workers smash the streets and brutally murder passersby. In the Pavlov mansion, Nikita encounters the Smoothing One herself. This ancient entity once created a galactic alliance of races. Outwardly, she appears as an incredibly beautiful human woman in a light dress. The Pavlov family has secretly allied with three other higher factions. Behind the masks of the sweet teenagers Vasilisa and Svyatoslav, hide the minds of their grandmother, Elena Denisova, and their elderly grandfather. They harshly demand immediate political concessions from the Smoothing One. The rich of Earth are blackmailing the entity with global nuclear war and the destruction of worlds. The conspirators seek absolute power in the galaxy. The Smoothing One categorically refuses to surrender to the greedy rebels. She returns Nikita’s combat rapier and requests force protection. The mansion is stormed by elite units loyal to the conspirators. Nikita fearlessly enters the fray. He calmly pierces the clones of Svyatoslav and Elena Denisova with his rapier. The conspiracy between humans and higher powers crumbles before our eyes. Then the hero descends into the dark, dank dungeons of Pundi. The artificial intelligence Control is hiding there. The program coordinated the conspiracy and directed the assassins. Control uses giant transparent tanks containing liquid computing processors. The Earthman methodically smashes the heavy glass columns with a sharp rapier. The sentient liquid flows onto the dirty floor. The artificial intelligence Control is forever erased from physical reality.

Returning home

The Smoother fulfills her verbal promise. She casts Nikita into a dark space-time vortex. The hero lands softly on the damp grass under the night sky. In the distance, the colorful lights of New Moscow glow brightly. The Earth continues to exist in its own time. People have successfully rebuilt civilization after a monstrous war and are building new megacities. Nikita finds a strict boarding school for children of war. He officially introduces himself as the brother of Nikita Samoilov, who has gone missing. The stern headmistress of the orphanage examines the paperwork and allows him to see the eight-year-old girl. This is the hero’s biological daughter, born from frozen cells. The girl possesses an astonishing genetic ability for cellular regeneration. She fearlessly pierces her own stomach with a long iron nail without any consequences. The wound heals instantly. Nikita repeats this horrific gesture, piercing his own cheek with the sharp nail. The heroes immediately acknowledge their blood relationship. They decide to patiently await the girl’s physical maturity. Father and daughter plan to take cruel revenge on the Big Four for the ruined destinies of humanity. They silently shake hands in a sign of their unbreakable union.