Seizure Part Three Cookie woke up with his head throbbing. He groaned as he began to force himself to his feet. A sudden impact to his ribs forced him back to the ground. "Stay on the floor, Terran." Cookie looked up at the looming form of the Neo Sapien. He looked around the room and saw a his entire kitchen staff, a few crew members he recognized, an Ensign from Outpost 14 and a few people he didn't recognize. They were probably from the other outposts. Most were already awake and forced into a corner. "You are the chief cook on board this ship, correct?" "Yeah. What's it to ya?" "We require that you be brought alive to our command center on Mars. As such it will be necessary to feed you. You will prepare minimal rations for your crew. As of now only a few of you have been killed. If you refuse, more of you will be killed. Do you understand?" "I do. That gas you pumped in, what was it?" The Neo kicked him again. "That is no concern of yours." "It may have reacted with the kitchen equipment. They use chemicals for a number of things, not the least of which is antibacterial purification. If that gas of yours contaminated them it could have interacted and could kill the whole crew." Cookie was now leaning back against an overturned table. The guard looked at another who nodded in response. "It was a nethalene-ether derivative." "I can't chance it. I need to replace the antibiotics in the main oven. If you want us alive, that is." The guard who seemed to be in charge came over. "Very well. Do it." "I need help. The oven is too heavy for me to move it alone. Not to mention I'll need some help installing the new anti-bacterial container." "Very well, Minos shall assist you." He pointed toward the guard standing over Cookie. "Alright, if you're willing to have him put his gun down." Cookie pushed his way to his feet. The lead guard frowned. "Very well. The female from engineering shall assist you." For the first time Cookie looked around the room trying to identify people. Besides his assistants he noticed Ensign Williams from Outpost 14, Rick Konig, the security chief, Lt. Commander Will Hagen and a few enlisted crew members He also noticed that Ramses was absent. He briefly wondered what the Neo's would do with a traitor to their race.. "Right." He walked to the main oven and noticed that the indicator he had left on it indicated that the seal has been tampered with. He grinned as the realization of what must have happened in the mess after the gas attacked came to him. "Just help me push it open for now, we'll get the antibacterial agent after it's open." They pushed it open slightly and Cookie began to reach in behind it. He felt a rifle thrust into his left hand. Amy noticed what was happening and reached behind the oven herself. "What is the delay? You started opening it quickly enough." "It jammed on something. Just give me a minute." Cookie twisted to get his other arm behind the oven. He felt another rifle pushed into it. "I think it's getting ready to give." Cookie groaned for effect. "Now." Ramses pushed the oven out of his way and opened fire on the first target he saw. Cookie twisted out from behind it as it spun away from him on its hinges. His left hand pushed its rifle towards the Chief while he fired with his right hand toward the lead guard Amy crawled to the cover of the main serving area and began firing at the guards nearest the door. Cookie's first shot was a lucky one, catching the leader right in his brood mark. It was erased, along with the entire contents of his skull, in the blast. His body stood for a moment in shock at what had just happened. Then it fell straight backwards in what would have been a comical moment if anyone had been paying attention. Several Neos were taken off guard and reacted slowly. The captives rolled around the floor spreading out to make themselves harder targets and make moving difficult for the Neos. One guard made a move to get behind the counter that Amy, Cookie and Ramses were using for cover and tripped when his foot connected with Hagen's head. Ensign Williams took his fallen gun and shot him. Minos had fallen in Ramses initial barrage. His gun found its way into one of the enlisted men's hands. He stood and fired a few shots at one of the guards by the door, preventing him from fleeing the room. Petty Officer Martinson was gunned down for his efforts, but Amy managed to kill the guard before he could again turn to leave the room. The last two guards fired at the Chief as he caught the gun. Rick knocked over a table using it as cover as he fired on the Neos. His first shot caught one in the throat sending him down. The second guard managed to shoot the table apart and leaped toward Rick's exposed position. The leap took him out of the others line of fire. The Chief rolled away slightly avoiding a direct impact, but still suffered a glancing blow to his ribs. The Neo fell out of control. He slowly stood, staring at the kitchen knife that had imbedded itself in his chest. While he struggled to regain his feet and his senses four blaster bolts ripped into his back sending him to the floor for good. Rick stood slowly as the rest of the captives stood and regained their legs. He looked at Cookie who was gathering weapons and distributing them. "You keep an armory behind the main oven?" "Of course. You ever see what this place is like when there's too much salt in the soup?" "You are one weird guy, Cookie." "Regulations require that the Mess be used as an auxiliary armory in case of emergency. It's actually a standing order that the chief of the mess on each ship in the fleet knows about. I happen to keep mine better stocked than most though." Cookie had put on a side arm and a bandolier with a half dozen grenades by now. "So I see. So how do we go about retaking the ship?" "Beats the heck out of me, I'm just a Medal of Honor winning former pilot turned damn fine chef. You're in charge of security." "Don't remind me. I was just returning to the ship when this happened." He turned to the people standing over Commander Hagen's unconscious body. "Is he alright?" "He seems it, sir. He just took a nasty kick to the head." Hagen began to stir. "Good. Alright, if we're going to retake the ship we need to control a few key points. This is going to be our command center. We're going to have to take back the engine room first. We should also try and take the Sick Bay back too. "Lieutenant Hiatt, you're in charge of getting the Engine Room back and getting this ship fully operational. I'll bet their command ship is still in the area and we're going to need to fight them off." Cookie spoke up, "We should try and take back the Hangar Deck also. There will undoubtedly be an E-Frame battle if we have to take that Frigate down." "Agreed, but that doesn't matter if we don't get control of this ship and some of its main batteries." Ensign Williams cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "Sir, shouldn't we take back the bridge." "Yes, but first we need to spread their defenses out. The bridge is probably unassailable right now. If we can get them to spread out we might have a chance. We'll have to be careful, if we use any of the doors without bypassing the computer system they'll know exactly where we are. If we can retake Security I can cut off that function, unless the Neo's have done something to prevent that." "Hagen's in charge here, once he wakes up. Cookie, you have field radios in that armory of yours?" "Yup, they use a frequency not normally monitored by the Normandy's communications equipment." "Good. You're going to liberate the Sick Bay. I'm going to lead the team to Security. Anyone have any idea how we can move around the ship without the Neo's knowing about it?" Lieutenant Hiatt responded to that. question. "Yes, sir. We can use the maintenance ducts. They run throughout the ship and they are all large enough for someone to crawl through. Some are even big enough to stand in. They lead into corridors only though. Maintenance inside the main rooms is done from internal access points." "Good enough. Do we have a map of them?" "Yeah. We do." Brian was speaking to this question. "The Mess computer is linked only to supply and has a bunch of maintenance data in it. I usually read it when I have night shift." "Will the Neo's know if we access it?" "No, Chief. It's not on the main system unless you link to it. It even has a printer if you want printouts." "Good enough. Print out ten, Cookie. We have to make sure the Neos don't get a hold of these. These maps are our only ace right now." A radio on one of the fallen Neos crackled to life. "Mess Hall, report." Silence fell over the room as everyone looked at each other. Ramses walked over to the radio and picked it up. "Mess Hall, is there a problem. You were supposed to report five minutes ago." "This is the Mess Hall. Situation is under control." "Who is this?" "Minos," Ramses lied. "Where is your commanding officer?" "He is attempting to convince the cooks to assist us." Cookie let out a soft grunt to punctuate that comment. "Tell him his next report is due in two hours." "I shall. Mess Hall out." A sigh left everyone in the Mess. "Ramses, hold onto that radio and stay here for now." Rick said with a smile. "Very well, sir." "Hagen, Macchia, Hiatt and myself are going to divide the rest of you into teams to retake the ship. When we're done, we're moving out."