I just lost my phone somewhere in the house today and started mumbling to myself as I searched for it.

"Is it in the room of the bath, or could I have left it on the machine for the washing of the clothes?"

It was then I stop and wondered why I was talking this way, when I realised something; it was time to stop watching Teen Titans Go because I was starting to talk like Starfire.

Chapter 40

I'm Going to Sing the Doom Song Now

"There were a few hundred of us settled near Meiss Lake" Doom started her tale. "The cities were such a mess, so it was better to find a place where you could catch and grow your own food instead. I was the middle child of five and like most little kids, I never knew how good my life really was, even though there were always chores to do. Whenever I got the chance though, I'd sneak off to visit this old couple who were really into music. Their names were Louis and Nina King and they had all sorts of wonderful things in their house for either making music or listening to it and I got to play with them all."

The sun had almost touched the horizon and so Harriet Doom sat down in the sand and watched the sky as it glowed a brilliant orange.

"My favourite was turntable that would play black vinyl discs, but they also had magnetic tape players of all shapes and sizes, and small electronic devices that could hold hundreds of hours of sound on them. Louis not only let me listen to music on all these things, but he also taught me how to build and fix them."

"They sound like nice people" Blue smiled.

"They were" Harriet sighed "Nina was amazing on the guitar and she had a voice like an angel."

"Were?" Blue asked "Did something happen to them?"

He noticed a tear run down Harriet's face as she continued.

"Sometimes they would go travelling in an old horse drawn Gipsy Wagon. They'd be gone for weeks but when they returned, they would always have a few more instruments or music recordings... but one day... they just never came back."

Harriet Doom swallowed and her lips began to quiver, so Blue reached out and held her hand.

"I was only eight years old at the time, but I was determined to find them. So after they'd been missing for two months, I packed some food and water in a backpack and snuck out of the house just before sunrise. I set off in the same direction Louis and Nina had taken and I had walked for about half a day when..."

Blue wasn't sure why Doom had stopped again but he thought it was best to give her the time she needed.

"Sorry... but I haven't even thought about those days for so long... and it hurts to bring it up."

"So you... found them... Louis and Nina?"

"No; I saw my shadow" Doom revealed "and it was moving... sweeping across the ground and I knew it meant something big was entering the atmosphere behind me. The road I was on ran between the lake and the high country so I hurried to a nearby rock face and threw myself down. The explosion was greater than anything I'd ever know; trees were ripped out of the ground, the air turned to fire and I would have been killed on the spot if not for the avalanche."

"You were almost killed by an avalanche?" Blue asked.

"Believe it or not, I was saved by one" Doom tried to laugh " when the biggest boulders hit the ground, they couldn't get to me as I lay in the corner of the rock face overhang; but I was still half buried and that was what protected me. At first I was surprised to find I was still alive and if I'd known what I was going to find when I dug myself out, I probably would have stayed where I was."

Doom dropped her head and sighed.

"Are you sure you want to go on" Blue asked.

"I have to get this out" she replied "I've been holding it in for far too long."

Doom raised her head again and took two deep breaths before continuing.

"I tried to run back home but after an hour, I realised it was simply not worth going on. The closer I got to our settlement, the worse it was and I had to face up to the facts; home was gone, the settlement was gone and all the people in it were... gone."

Doom lay back on the sand and stared up as the first of the stars appeared in the fading sky.

"After that I just walked away, still hoping to find Louis and Nina of course but I never did; so I just kept going west, trying to find another settlement or town."

"I must have been hard" Blue noted "Did you survive?"

"I... wha..."

It took Doom a second or two to realise precisely what Blue had said; she looked at him in surprise and saw from his face, he was trying to cheer her up.

"No; I died only one mile from the main highway when I was attacked and eaten by rampaging mob of bloodthirsty Hamsters" she declared.

"Yeah you gotta watch out for those Hamsters" Blue agreed "horrible vicious creatures."

"Idiot" Doom smiled and pushed Blue over in the sand.

As he picked himself up again, Doom stood and began to wander back towards the ship; she continued her story when Blue had caught up.

"Having lost everyone at the same time, all my family and friends, I guess I must have been in shock for longest time. Eventually I did reach the main highway..."

"After escaping the Hamsters" Blue interrupted.

"Precisely; I found another little farming community a few days later, which was good because I'd run out of food the day before. When the people there found out where I was from and what had happened, they fed me and let me stay. I tried at first to just slip back into my old life in a new place with a new family and new neighbours, but after only a month... I started to feel scared. If I really did settle in and make new friends, I felt sure I would lose them all the same way and I knew I just couldn't live like that. So I packed up my gear and snuck off again one night."

"Where did you go next?" Blue asked.

Doom smiled and gave a little chuckle.

"Here; although it took me eight years to do so. I just went from place to place not willing to settle. I used what Louis had taught me about fixing electronic stuff and found even at such a young age, my skills were always in demand so I could get food or a bed without being a freeloader" Doom nodded.

"So do you think you'll be able to stay here?"

"It's a bit too soon to tell, but we'll see."

"So why did you adopt the name Doom and why don't you like using the name Harriet?" Blue wondered.

"Amongst the wide variety of music Nina loved to listen too, was a kind of punk jazz metal band called Surging Aquatic Death; they had this guy who played the B3 with stage name Doom; it seemed to suit me."

"So what's your real name?" Blue asked.

"This is for your ears only; promise?"

"I promise" Blue solemnly held up his hand.

"It's Harriet Ingerman" she admitted for the first time in eight years.

"Ingerman" Blue thought out loud "I know that name from somewhere."

There was no doubt about it; Ursula Linwood was enjoying herself, even though the rooms her family had been using inside the complex could have been a little bit bigger. With only two bedrooms Emerson was sleeping in a separate single unit fifty meters away, but it was wonderful to have the family together again for a while and not to have to contend with rolling on the ocean. But as they ate their breakfast the next morning though, even a good night's sleep and fresh food had not improved the mood of her offspring. They were both just as sullen and grumpy as they had been when they had arrived back the previous evening.

"I don't know if you've got plans for today but you father and I are going to help out inside the base today to get a better idea of what it would be like if we decided to stay here. This morning I'll be working in one of the farms and your Dad will be helping with transporting supplies from the ship, and then after lunch we'll swap over."

"I'm going with Dad" Calla blurted out when she heard where he was going.

"What about you Emerson?" Mom asked the melancholy young man.

"Oh... I think I'll just look around here some more" he sighed "and see if I can find something interesting to do."

"Have you just given up?" Calla accused her brother "I thought you liked Doom."

"Did something happen with MIss Doom yesterday?" Ursula asked.

"Oh she's got the hots for Mr. Smartypants" Calla huffed.

"I warned you to be more direct and open with her" Ursula said in a real I-told-you-so manner.

"Give a rest Mom" Emerson hissed and stormed out of the room.

"Idiot" Calla mumbled and received a verbal scolding from her mother.

The corridor echoed to the sound of Emerson's footsteps as people moved out of his way. He needed to take his mind off of what had happened on the ship the day before but he had no idea how to do so. Before life had blown up in his face, Emerson had planned to talk to Blue about the Spacecraft Simulator and other things involving cool machines, but now he would go miles out of his way just to avoid seeing that kids face.

Emerson saw many busy people as he wandered around, but none of them appeared to be doing anything interesting. His luck changed however when he walked into one of the huge warehouses near the Railgun itself and found several engineers, a few designers and a scientist pouring over five incredible looking robots. The smallest one was the size of a refrigerator and the biggest was the size of one of the four-wheel-drives.

Even though he wanted to know what they were doing, Emerson just stood back and watched, hoping no one would tell him to go away. Eventually someone noticed him standing there and so, as they had been ordered to by Professor Adisa back when the visitors had first arrived, they showed the young man some unexpected hospitality.

"You can come and have a closer look if you like" the leader offered.

"Oh I wouldn't want to get in the way" Emerson shook his head.

"If you were in the way, we'd let you know."

Emerson decided not to turn down the offer again as he walked over.

"Cool looking machines" he noted.

"Cool indeed" one of them agreed "Over thirty years ago, hundreds of Robots like these were sent to Mars to start construction of the colony."

"Now we have to re-design them to operate in micro gravity" another added.

"So it's off with the old wheels and tracks and on with manoeuvring thrusters and grasping claw legs" said a third.

"Feel free to stay and watch unless it gets too boring for you" the first one offered and Emerson decided it was too good an offer to pass up; cool machines and no Blue.

Calla meanwhile found herself under the influence of the dreaded Pink-headed Fruit Dove of Frustration. She had assumed her father would just jump into a vehicle and head off to the ship, but she instead found herself standing around waiting for over an hour while Maynard and the people he was working with measured the floor area of a future manufacturing plant. After discussing the merits of several different layouts, they all finally agreed on the best one and left for the ramp garage. Soon they were on their way to the beach in a disgustingly slow truck which only worsened Callas bad mood.

To make loading easier, the driver decided to reverse the truck up the bow ramp at a slow crawl so before anyone could stop her, Calla had thrown open the passengers door and jumped out onto the sand. She knew her father would punish her for doing such a dangerous thing, but she had waited long enough and could deal with him later. Calla ran up the ramp and found Jeana Davey retrieving the container next needed back at base.

"Have you seen Doom today?" she puffed.

"No I haven't sorry" Jeana answered as she reached for the communicator on her belt "Maybe Blue knows where she is; they spent a lot of time together last evening."

Those were words Calla did not want to hear although she would never admit it; the next words she heard didn't fill her with joy either.

"Jeana to Blue; can you hear me, over."

"Yes Jeana, go ahead, over."

"Do you know where Calla's friend Doom is? Over."

"Yeah, she's sitting right next to me; over."

"And where are you? Over."

"In my cabin; over."

"Thanks Blue; Jeana out. There you go Calla, she's..."

But by the time Jeana had replaced the communicator and turned back to Calla, the young girl had run off and the only sign of her presence, was the sound of footsteps on metal stairs echoing throughout the hull.

"Somebody's jealous" Jeana sang to herself.

I'd often thought there was not enough back story to many of the characters but didn't want to bog everything down with lots of tragedy every few chapters. Miss Doom gave a quick opportunity to show the uncertainty of life on this future Earth in half a chapter. It also reminds me of an interesting observation I once heard about the risk from meteors.

The real reason why the dinosaurs are extinct, is because they did not have a space program.

Deep.