Cook

Cook was an scarab-looking (cricket/locust looking) alien that worked as the chef of the mess hall in Tau-14.

Background

Early Career

In 3038, Cook arrived from the Kiluan Sector to be the chef at Tau-14. While on the station he garnered a reputation for having interesting meals, though he received some criticism of his cooking by the human populace of the station.

His galley was visited by a fifteen year old Cale Tucker, who came to Tau-14 with Tek and Iji to see the galaxy. Cook served Cale a sample platter of his culinary dishes ranging from: Groonch, Flavl, Hugga fish, Steamed brupweed, Ordl steak, Jyx pasta surprise, and qrind eggs. To his surprise, he received a compliment of his cooking from Cale, causing to ask the boy if he was really human, but took praise with good humor.

Drej Raid on Tau-14

During his tenure as a cook on Tau-14, Cook was beaten up by Chowquin for serving synthflesh. Due to the dissatisfaction of his cooking, mostly his lack of real meat, Cook bred Akrennian Beetles as a protein source for his diners.

In 3043, Cook served Akrennian Beetle Sushimi for lunch. Shortly after serving another alien his lunch and praising him, Cale, one of his regular diners, came over to be served his and Tek's lunches and asked for ketchup. This only insulted Cook, causing him to tell Cale that he didn't need ketchup and swat at him with his ladle while telling him to keep the line moving. As Cale walked away to join Tek at a table, Cook then called humans a filthy disgrace. Shortly after Cale started complaining to Tek about life on Tau-14, the station's old gravity drive suddenly malfunctioned, rendering everybody and everything into a weightless state. Quickly claiming that he could take care of the situation, in order to calm everybody down, Cook took the initiative to "fix" the gravity drive by banging it repeatedly with his ladle until it worked again. As soon as the gravity was restored, Cook claimed that his "secret" to getting the gravity drive working again was that it "needed some love" and encouraged everybody to get back to eating now that the danger was over.

Later when a troop of three Drej drones came aboard the station and began to target Cale and Joseph Korso (who'd come aboard a few minutes ago in search of Cale just as the lunch break was starting), Cook hid in the kitchen to get away from the firefight. Unfortunately, during the fight, Cale took advantage of the fact that the gravity drive was starting to show signs of malfunctioning again and told Korso to shoot it, which he did, thus destroying the gravity drive and rendering everything and everybody weightless again...and sidetracking the drones, which was Cale's idea all along. Cale and Korso then took advantage of the weightlessness to flee to the kitchen and shut the doors, causing the drones to shoot at the area. Upon entry, Cale harshly criticized Cook for not having any good baking in his kitchen.

While Cale and Korso tried to find another way out as the drones were blasting the door they came in and trying to cut their way in through another door, Cook looked at his food, which was being ruined by the weightlessness, and immediately blamed Cale and Korso for being the cause of the problem. He then threatened to have both humans captured by Chowquin, testify against them in court, and locked up in jail, where they could have all the ketchup they'd want (remembering Cale's request for ketchup earlier). Upon seeing the reason for the humans' intrusion in his kitchen and recognizing the blast marks appearing on the doors, Cook fled into the ventilation shafts, hoping to hide from the fight as he knew the Drej would kill any carbon based alien that got in the way of whoever they were after. Unfortunately for Cook, his cowardice only gave Korso the idea to evade the pursuing drones by making their way out through the vents and told Cale to follow him (calling Cook "Ugly") as he had the right idea. Despite Cale's criticism of the idea, he heeded the advice and both humans went up into the same vent Cook fled into, just before the drones (reduced to two as one of Kroso's shots had disintegrated the third one) succeeded in blasting through the door they'd come in, just as a backup gravity drive restored the gravity.

Meanwhile, Cook got as far as he could into the vents and crouched down, waiting for the Drej to go away. Unfortunately for him, Cale and Korso past him and the drones made their way into the vent and fired at the humans, their shots narrowly missing Cook. Cook immediately fled, lamenting that he'd picked a bad hiding place and came into a large area where there were a few hatches. Whilst Cale and Korso returned the drones' fire and went down an open hatch, Cook tried to open another hatch to no avail (for he wasn't strong enough) and cried out that he was only a cook and didn't do anything to the Drej to justify their attack. When the first drone caught up, Cook screamed in terror, but seeing that the drone wasn't interested in him, he directed it to where the humans went, hoping the Drej would spare his life and punish the two humans for intruding in his kitchen and "ruining" his food. The Drej did no such thing: the first drone "thanked" Cook for the tipoff by blasting him with a plasma bolt. As a result, Cook could only watch as he turned green and felt his body start expanding, and then he exploded into a pile of goo, leaving only his dentures (which got out the word "Bullseye", as Cook's last word, a milisecond after the body blew up) and antennas, which fell to the floor while the second drone caught up to the first drone and the first drone showed its comrade where the humans they were after went.