VUX Beast

A legendary monster, only one living individual of which is known to exist, usually nicknamed merely the "Beast" or, occasionally, "ZEX's Beauty". This beast was described in ancient literature as being unmatched in ferocity and power, leading Admiral ZEX, an obsessive collector of grotesque fauna, to become obsessed with acquiring it. The only known reference to its location was an ancient wildlife book written by an unknown alien author, which ZEX had found and studied. The Beast was said to live on a planet orbiting a yellow star in the constellation "Linch-Nas-Ploh", an eight-star constellation — "Linch-Nas-Ploh", in the aliens' language, meant "the snake-like creature who has swallowed the elephantine beast".

ZEX challenged The Captain to find this Beast for him before he would turn over his captured Shofixti Maidens. The Captain agreed, and finally heard of a Beast that might fit this description in his dealings with the Thraddash, finally learning that the yellow star of "Linch-Nas-Ploh" was the Delta star of the constellation humans had named Lyncis.

The creature appears to be the only extant, extremely long-lived member of its species, though there may be an alternate explanation for why only one was found and why the ancients referred to it in the singular. It is classified by Earth xenologists as a "xenoteratomorph", or "alien monster form" — a creature much larger and stronger than roughly equivalent Earth species. In appearance it has a huge head surrounded by barbed tentacle-like appendages along with two longer, three-jointed armlike appendages covered with spikes and blades at the base, with green skin and a red tongue. Because of its large size and robust nervous system, it is highly resistant to stunner bolts, and required several batteries' worth of stun charges from crew's lander before it was incapacitated. Even then, it only took it a few seconds to recover from the stun effects, and required extremely strong magnetic restraints to hold in place. Its extreme aggression and the length and flexibility of its "arms" made it very dangerous to approach; it attacked and injured many members of the Starbase's scientific crew while it was kept there, including xenobiology research team leader Dr. Chu. It appeared to have an instinctive urge to constantly eat, chewing up anything it could get within its reach; upon finding something too hard for its teeth to break, it would rip it to pieces with its arms in frustration.

Due to the dangerous nature of the Beast, The Captain transported it to ZEX's private world as quickly as possible. It was unsurprising that ZEX proved overconfident in his ability to control the Beast, and it quickly escaped the control of its handlers and rapidly laid waste to the menagerie, killing and devouring ZEX and his subordinates, before it ran away into the wilderness, leaving The Captain free to salvage what he could from the ruins.

Sources of information

ZEX's clue accurately describes the Lyncis constellation. Though it does limit the location to the three yellow stars in the constellation (Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon), the clue does not provide any additional help in finding the Beast. The Thraddash, if they have joined the New Alliance and have been told to emulate The Captain, reveal the exact location, telling about a vicious creature they encountered on Delta Lyncis I.

Relevance to plot

Optional. It is necessary to capture the Beast in order to obtain the Shofixti Maidens and resurrect the Shofixti race. It is one of the first steps in initiating Yehat Rebellion and reducing the crew cost.