Douglas Hooker, also known as Doug, is a Flatlander businessman and head of Skyhook Enterprises. He is described as thin, with blue eyes and straw-colored hair and perpetually looking like a twenty year old thanks to anti-aging medicine.[1]
He was diagnosed as a potential paranoid at the age of eighteen and had to check every two weeks with an autodoc to keep his chemical metabolism in balance to avoid becoming insane.[1]
At the age of thirty-two he was head of Skyhook Enterprises after his father left the company a year prior to become a Belter. During this time the company took on the project of the first safe ramship using a special ramscoop provided by Moscow Motors. The development of the project was under the charge of Greg Loeffler, his childhood friend. Around this time he was also married to Clarisse.[1]
By the time he was sixty-one Clarisse had left him due to him being barred from having children by the Fertility Board for potential paranoia. Around this time his friend Greg Loeffler and his family left Earth for Plateau on one of the now conventional safe ramships previously created by the company. This departure severely affected his social network.[1]
Over a decade later due to a malfunction in his usual autodoc, Doug started developing paranoia. This caused him to develop a conspiracy in his mind centered around his friend Greg Loeffler hatching a decades-old grand plan to make his life miserable and monotone and keeping him friendless. This idea eventually led him to stole his own ramship and leave Earth for Plateau to confront Greg.[1]
After arriving on Plateau, Douglas searched for Greg Loeffler's house and after finding it, incinerated it with the ramship's drive killing Greg's wife, Joanna, his daughter and son-in-law and his grandson.[1]
He was subsequently arrested and given a two years sentence as well as psychotherapy and conditioning to cure him of his madness. After, having being released he tried to left Plateau for Wunderland.[1]
On his way to Wunderland he discovered former friend Greg Loeffler tailing him and intend on killing him after having gone insane himself due to the murder of his family. After a laser duel in which both ships were in danger of being destroyed Dough made his peace with Greg following him thinking he would eventually turn back.[1]
This calculation was wrong and Doug was forced to skip Wunderland due to being unable to turn as Greg would try to collide with him while doing so. He kept going for the next dozens of thousands of years being kept alive but the ship's autodoc.[1]
Eventually, after leaving the galaxy still being pursued by Greg he found out that Greg had died eons ago during the laser duel but not before having programmed the ship's autopilot to follow him and intercept him. Years later after finding this Doug was finally killed when Greg's ship's ramscoop field caught up to his own ship. He was over 117,000 years old when he died.[1]
Appears on[]
- Flatlander (Possibly mentioned as Miller instead of Douglas)
- The Ethics of Madness
- Madness Has Its Place (Mentioned only)