The Aloha Oe crew bring a red box to the alien registration center, believing it to contain a rare alien. They have no memory of how they acquired the box, only knowing that they will not remember what is inside once it is opened. The box accidentally opens to reveal a book that was checked out by Admiral Perry from the library planet Lagado. The crew also finds a complimentary ticket for a free trip to Lagado inside the book. When they arrive at the planet, they are transported to the surface by its resident aliens, who greet the book and ticket as their librarian and deputy librarian, respectively. The book and ticket are revealed to be aliens that record information on their bodies and take control of others' minds, having used the crew to rescue themselves from the Gogol Empire, explaining their failure to recall the event. Before erasing their memories, the book gives the crew another red box as a gift for their help, warning them not to open it early. The crew bring the box to the registration center, where it opens to reveal a videotape that also manipulates others' memories, starting an intergalactic war involving other video and computer storage devices that goes unrecorded in history.