Two veteran patrol pilots reassigned to tedious freight duty must carry a mysterious untrained passenger nicknamed the Bean Brain. Initially dismissed as dead weight, the passenger gradually shares opinions and observations that unsettle the crew as they encounter an alien vessel and confront reports of vanished ships. Through their banter and speculation the narrative satirizes military bureaucracy and cultural paranoia about a neighboring naked alien species, while exploring tensions between routine procedures and human adaptability. The story blends comic, dialogue-driven scenes with a critique of specialization and an argument for improvisation in unexpected crises.