DEEP SPACE NINE VISITOR FILE - 1009
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Visitor Log, Stardate 50173.1 - present 

  

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   GRAND NAGUS ZEK - Visual nr 3050
 
The current Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance is at least 100 years old, with a mute Hupyrian servant, 
Maihar'du, constantly at his side. The epitome of all that his race holds dear, Zek is as rude, blunt, 
arrogant, presumptive and greedy as his own wiles and position will allow. Still, while revered for his
business lobes, in recent years Zek has scandalously come to depend for business advice on his new
love, Quark and Rom's mother Ishka, and faced down a Ferengi Commerce Authority inquest in 2373 to
keep his job. 

Zek faked his death in 2369 and named Quark his successor in order to test the reaction of his son and 
heir apparent Krax -- as anticipated, a disappointment. As a workaholic, he had not had a vacation in 85
years in 2369. Despite the usual friction in UFP-Ferengi relations, Zek played a major role in early contact
with the Dominion through his trade contacts with the Dosi and the Karemma, long before the Federation 
had information; with that leverage he was not above asking for a favor in return, such as the release of his
nephew Belongo by Starfleet authorities on Aldebaran III. 

Zek shares with Sisko and Dax the distinction of being one of the few non-Bajorans to experience an orb 
encounter, but the short-lived benevolence that resulted in 2371 was so threatening to the modern Ferengi
way of life that Quark confronted the Prophets himself to have him restored. He suffers from ongoing
vascular damage to the mucous membranes caused by his own use of using Hupyrian beetle snuff.