Proktols of Neptune

The story follows a space-captain and his patrol crew who board a drifting, black derelict and discover it is a deliberate trap set by a peculiar alien race: thin, wiry, large-headed beings with antennae and shell-like reddish skin. The visitors confront unfamiliar ship architecture, a central glass-enclosed brain capable of crushing resistance through psychic force, and interrogations about a human pirate, forcing the crew to balance curiosity, duty, and survival. Under mounting telepathic pressure they improvise defenses and test loyalties while uncovering the derelict's secrets and the aliens' motives, turning a routine salvage into a tense confrontation between human resolve and alien intellect.