ZEX

Admiral ZEX was the brilliant commander¹ of the VUX military in the Ur-Quan Slave War. He is the creator of the tactics of the Fortress Square and the Dynamic Triangle. The Yehat respect him greatly — an honor they make to no other VUX — and claim that, were ZEX not in command of the VUX war fleet, the VUX would have fallen to the Alliance of Free Stars in mere weeks.

However, his brilliance seems tempered by an odd form of mental imbalance. ZEX is drawn to the grotesque and bizarre, being attracted to strange, unique animal life with an uninhibited, downright sexual enthusiasm.² This is seen as a perversion by the rest of ZEX's race, which lead to the VUX High Council and the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za Primat, after the War, exiling him to a deserted, inhabitable planet in the Alpha Cerenkov system — Alpha Cerenkov I (which was euphemistically referred to as sending him on "luxurious retirement"). It is there that, along the time of many years, he and his crew of subordinates established an enormous menagerie of rare beasts (which ZEX affectionately refers to as his "children") from as far away as Procyon and Vega, a menagerie which came to include even a set of sixteen cryogenically imprisoned Shofixti Maidens.

When The Captain meets ZEX, the latter confesses to longing for a most ugly creature to complete his collection of Ugliness. ZEX possesses a clue as to the location of the creature, often called the VUX Beast — an ancient wildlife handbook, written by an unknown alien author, claims that "It(!) basks in yellow light within the constellation Linch-Nas-Ploh." "Linch-Nas-Ploh" was approximately translated by ZEX's subordinates to "the long, thin creature who has swallowed the huge beast.", and refers to the Lyncis constellation.

The Beast is eventually located on Delta Lyncis I. When The Captain tries to close the deal, ZEX double-crosses him, revealing his intention to take the Beast and kidnap what he truly regards as the most deformed, vicious and therefore appealing creature he had ever encountered, the Human Captain himself. Fortunately for The Captain, ZEX's forces prove unable to control the Beast during the transfer process, and it escapes and ravages his compound, killing ZEX in the process. The Captain is then able to retrieve the Shofixti Maidens.

Notes and references

¹From the Role Playing Resource Guide, p. 53.

²From the 1998 IRC chat with Toys for Bob (Fwiffo is both Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III here):

<Mephisto_> Fwiffo: Was ZEX gay, or just a little 'confused'?

<Fwiffo> ZEX liked humans. He was into beastiality at the very least.