Hereafter

[Wayne23]

11/24: 87-76. We take a quick lead but they stay close. Up 12 at the half. We're still scoring lots of points.

Pete Andy had 31, 6 against a very good C. 20, 5, 4 for Thop, 14, 5, 5 for Jack, 11, 6, 4 for Fino. 8 and 5 for 6th man Cal Mill.

-5 RBs but only 7 TOs.

I never expected us to be 4-0 at this point but it's delightful.

Next up is 0-4 Central Arkansas, there. On paper this is a tough matchup for us, especially at PG and PF, and maybe even at C. We'll need to play well. The biggest thing in our favor is that they have a lot of trouble scoring points.

Back to life on the ship. Meals are taken in the cafeteria nearest to where a person lives or works, usually, although there's no restriction about where a person eats.

The food is great and there are always choices, including having a meal cooked to order, but that's takes a little more time.

I have friends among the crew, but mostly the people I work with. The ship isn't military but a lot of military and military-like protocols are in place, so rank, or more like importance of the job, matter.

As to dating or relationships, I'm not seeing anyone. I do have "dates" with women in the holo. Those women are holo beings, not truly real, but seemingly so to the tiniest detail. I suppose that must seem weird to anyone who hasn't experienced it, and yeah, I guess maybe it is. But how nice to have someone there when you want or need them, and not at any other time. Don't get me wrong, in this life I'd really like to have a family, but there's no rush. I'm only 25. And yes, I'm a different age in my piano and hoops life, but that's also in the holo, where I can be different ages in different situations.

[Wayne23]

11/28: 95-84. Back and forth until they go on a run. Down 13 at the half. We come back and take the lead. Then we widen it.

Our PG, Brett Joon, who usually scores very little, led us with 28, 3, 3 and he handcuffed their PG. 19, 7 and good D for Andy, 12, 8, 9 for Jack, 15, 1, 5 for Thop.

Their SG was on fire; he had 32. But no one else did much for them.

+6 RBs. We shot 55% to their 41.8%. +12 in the paint.

I still think we're playing over our heads but the opponents have been weak teams, and will continue to be through the end of pre-conference play. Still, I'll take the wins!

2-1 Army is next, at our place. It's already a sellout. They have some guys who can shoot, and they rebound some. Good PG but we think we can turn them over.

I skipped ahead in my piano and hoops lived to 7th grade.

I joined the middle school band and got lead piano, and a solo in the winter concert, and another one in the spring concert. I've started writing pop songs, and I can play some pretty complex classical stuff. I'm loving it! The band teacher says I'm not a prodigy by any means, but I'm pretty good.

I start at Sf on my middle school basketball team. I'm the leading scorer and coach says I'm his best defender. He plays mostly man to man and I cover the other team's best scorer, and I usually hold him to just a few points.

[Wayne23]

12/1: 91-83. We take an early lead again. Joon is going crazy, 26 in the 1st half. We're up by 8. They came back and got within one possession a couple of times late.

Joon was held down in the 2nd but still wound up with 30 and 5. 12, 4, 5 for Mill. 13, 4 for Jack.

8 TOs. We had a slight edge in most of the stats.

It was great playing before a full house and they rallied us on when it got close.

We give Mill some of Fino's minutes. We'll play them about the same amount of time.

At 3-2 Alcorn State next. Stats are very close for this one. We're better on O, they're better on D.

[Wayne23]

12/5: (Author's Note: Computer crashed and the word file I'm writing this on was corrupted. I lost 2 games, so I'll need to rewrite the posts from the scores. Crap! There was a LOT of backstory lost. Double crap!)

67-71 at Alcorn ST. Lots of lead changes and ties but we couldn't catch them at the end. 26, 4, 5 for Thop, 17, 3 for Cal Mill.

Most stats were about even but we were -12 in the paint and that did us in.

0-6 Bryant is next here. This is certainly one we should win.

We get to Mars in a few days. We're all excited about that. We bypassed Earth's moon, as there's not a lot to learn there, at least in terms of our other possible destinations.

[Wayne23]

12/8: 79-82. Very frustrating loss. They nailed a three at the buzzer for the win. Never more than 6 points separating the teams. And again tonight we lost it in the paint, 20-28.

21, 9, 3 for Andy but his man was a little better. 12, 3, 6 for Jonn, 16, 5 for Mill.

2-5 Florida Atlantic is here next. We need to turn this around and this is a team that we should beat. Let's see what happens.

We reach Mars orbit, dodging the two moons, Deimos and Phobos, which isn't all that easy. They're both small and they move quickly through their orbits.

12/9: I woke at dawn to see what I could see. Yes, Mars really is red. There isn't all that much to see, even through the telescopic view that was available on monitors throughout the ship but still, no human has ever seen what we're seeing so it's pretty compelling.

There's an old theory that Deimos' gravity well is so light that a very athletic man may be able to run and jump high enough to reach escape velocity. Our most athletic crew member, Ed Beck, is going to give it shot tomorrow.

12/10: Ed Beck's first attempt to get down to the moon almost ended in disaster. The small gravity well didn't kick in enough to slow him as much as we thought.

Luckily, he flat missed the moon as it sailed past. Had he not he would have landed very hard, and probably fatally. He made his way back to the ship. We're told that there was quite an argument about whether to give it another shot. After recalculating and double checking the recalculations, he tries again in the morning.

12/10: Beck got down to the moon's surface safely. We all watched as, after a brief rest, he started running as fast as he could and took his best leap.

He hung in the air for a very long time (68.4 seconds, as it turned out). It appeared to most of us that he was indeed going to escape the moon's surface, but he didn't quite make it and slowly fell back to the surface, landing fairly softly. He only weighs 2 ounces on Deimos. He waited and rested for an hour, then tried again.

This time he hovered for 69.2 seconds but again fell back to the surface. The Captain ordered him to rest and then come back to the ship before he ran out of oxygen.

Beck got from ship to surface via personal jet pack, and it looked like it was not a smooth or easy ride. He later confirmed that it wasn't.

He made it back to the ship but it took some tricky maneuvering to get him docked and in. He made it though.

The scientists in the most relevant fields felt like and Olympic triple jump athlete could very likely reach escape velocity. We, of course, have the capability of bringing one of those from the holo, but the Captain nixed the idea.

We're going to stay here for a couple more days or so to explore Mars and the moons more thoroughly. If nothing terribly interesting appears we'll then begin the long trek to Jupiter and its moons.

[Wayne23]

12/12: 74-60. Another close game early. Down 1 at the half. Down 2 with 10 to play. Tied with 5 left. We owned the last three minutes. Whew! We needed this win!

16, 4 for Pete Andy, and good D on his man. 10, 6, 4 for Jack.

+6 RBs, only 8 TOs to their 15.

We shot a lousy 39.7% but they only shot 36.2%. +9 on 2nd chances.

2 more pre-conference games, both away and both against teams that could challenge us. The good news? A week off, and then another week off after the next game.

Next is Coppin ST, 4-6, but 4-1 at home. We think we have definite edge inside and on the bench, and we're about even inside. But it's a road game against a team that plays very well at home.

It turns out Phobos is presenting us with a mystery compelling enough to keep us here for awhile longer.

There's something that seems... not natural about the surface of Phobos. We're sending three crew members down to take some samples and to dig to see if they can find out what's under the surface.

12/14: The crew got down to Phobos, which in many ways is even tougher than landing on Deimos, even though Phobos is a little bigger. The surface is uneven and slippery, and the damned moon is zooming around.

Everyone who was able to do so watched the three explore.

They moved around, looking to see what they could see. Eventually they told us they saw a spot where they thought only a little digging would lead them below the dust and dirt.

They dug. It took longer than expected but they finally reached the surface.

"Captain, this is metal... and it's not only metal, it looks like it's machined metal!"

That was a shock.

"We don't have the tools to drill through this but that sure seems like a good idea."

The Captain answered and told them to return to the ship immediately. That was a surprise.

12/15: I'm not at the meetings of the high brass, and they've been tight lipped. The rumors say that there's testing going on using instruments aboard the ship. They're doing x ray testing and all sorts of other things to try to get beneath the outer metallic shell that was left exposed by the crew. No idea how much of that is true, if any of it is.

12/17: The latest rumor is that a robotic crew was sent to the moon's surface during the night (That would be our night, as in when most of the crew are sleeping. 2/3 of us sleep during the "night."). Anyway, no one is saying anything official but supposedly the robotic crew brought down tools to get through the outer metallic surface. Whether or not they were successful is up for guessing.

12/18: We're out of Mars orbit and headed for Jupiter. Not a word more about what may or may not be on the surface of Phobos. Hm...

[Wayne23]

12/19: 77-68. 11-1 early. 20-6 with 8 minutes played. Up only 9 at the half. I was worried about this one but we were in charge most of the way. They scored the last 5 points to make it seems closer than it was.

18, 8 for Andy. 14, 5, 3 for Joon, 11, 9, 3 for Mill.

-5 RBs, 3 fewer TOs. We shot 49.1% to their 40%, and we hit 6 more from the line. +8 in the paint.

At 5-4, 3-0 Merrimack to close out pre-conference play. They're good. We think it's pretty even but our bench is stronger and we should be able to turn them over. We may press more than usual, depending upon how things go.

ETA for Jupiter is 12/22/'23.

[Wayne23]

12/26: 86-79. We scored the first 11. Up only 4 at the half. We led by as many as 14 in the 2nd half. The final was as close as they got.

30, 3, 6 for PG Brett Joon. 18, 8, 4 for Thop. Their strength seemed to be outside and I challenged my guards to show them up. They did!

+7 RBs. 12 TOs. We shot 50.7%, they shot 45.6%. We took 10 more shots and made 8 of them.

+10 on the fast break and +8 on 2nd chances.

9-2, NET #128. #2 in the nation in PPG, but #305 in PPG Allowed. #1 in Assists, #23 in RBs. #8 in free throw pct.

+7.9 PPG, +1.5 RBs, -4.2 TOs, +4.7 Assists, +2.9 Blocks.

SG Rash Thop leads us with 16.9 PPG. C Pete Andy is close behind with 16.5. 13.1 for PG Brett Joon, 11.1 for sub F/C Cal Mill, 9.5 for SF Tom Jack.

Fino leads us with a weak 5.9 RBs. The next 3 guys have 5.3, 5.3, 5.2.

Joon gets 5.2 Assists and Jack gets 4.1. No one has more than 1.9 TOs.

1st America East game is at 5-6 Maine. They're favored but I don't see it. Our backcourt is much better than theirs. They're probably better at 3 and 4, but we're better in the middle and the benches are about even. And the biggest factor is that they have a lot of trouble scoring points. We can beat this team if we play well.

I'm now 16, and a junior in high school. It's impossible to balance the piano and hoops, so I'm playing hoops, but taking private piano lessons.

I start at SF for my high school team, and we're really good.

My piano teacher is great. I have a job stocking shelves in a supermarket to pay for the lessons.

[Wayne23]

1/2/2023: 77-49. We take an early lead and stretch it out. Up 18 at the half. Our D was truly stifling.

20, 4, 5 for Rash Thop. 14, 2, 5 for Joon. We had 13 TOs; they had 26. +12 in the paint.

We held them to 30% from the field, 17.4% on threes.

Cal Mill has a respiratory thing going on but he should be ready for our next game.

Finally back home after 15 days to meet New Hampshire, 7-5, 1-0. Tough team, especially at PG, PF, and on the bench. This one should be a challenge.

I'm now in my senior year of high school. UConn, UMass, URI all want me. They've made it clear that they think it's questionable that I would become a starter but they all say they see me as a potential 6th man and spot starter. And yes, I'm having another great season, and I've finally reached 6'4".

[Wayne23]

1/9: 57-65. We jump out to a quick 10 point lead. Up 8 at the half. They take a lead early in the 2nd. We just couldn't get anything going on O; 10 points fewer than our previous low. We should win when we only give up 65.

14, 7 for Andy but his man out played him. 12, 10 for Mill.

We shot an abysmal 30%, 3-9 on threes. We were +13 on 2nd chances but the rest of the stats were pretty even. Not a good night.

Hartford is the only undefeated in conf. team left in the AEC.

7-7, 2-1 Vermont is at our place next. We think we're the better team. They turn it over a LOT and they don't rebound well. I think if we play our game we'll be just fine.