Hereafter

[Wayne23]

1/23: We look awake in this one. Now we fell behind. Down 4 after 10. Up 6 at the half. We're getting nothing from the guards. Up 5 with 10 left.

73-65. We really wanted this one. To go 1-1 without our starting backcourt? I'll take it!

24, 10 for Star, who really stepped up. 7, 13 for Mack. 11, 4 for Haus. +7 RBs, 12 TOs to their 10.

Our guards will be back for our next game.

7-11, 3-4 Valparaiso is here. This is a team we should beat. They don't score much and we're at full strength.

We're tied for first with Evansville and we still play them twice.

[Wayne23]

1/26: We take an early lead and expand it. Up 9 after 10. Up only 3 at the break. Run! Up 18 with 10 left.

75-61. We led all the way. 16, 9, 3 for Gaut Wall, 12, 4 for Mack, 11, 2, 3 for Brad, 11, 3, 3 steals for Haus. 12 TOs to 22.

+20 in the paint. Threes were the only thing they had going; they hit 7 of them.

We're at 8-11, 6-2 Evansville, one of 2 teams tied for 2nd, 1 back of us. They may have a slight edge at the Point, they definitely have an edge on the bench, and their SF is very good, though maybe not as good as Gaut Wall. We have slight edges in every stats category except shooting, where we almost never have an edge, but we're expecting a tough road game. They're quick and they have a very balanced attack. Everybody can score and they don't have a go to guy.

Everything points to a human or humans causing the power outage.

[Wayne23]

1/27: I woke up to alarms clanging in the middle of the night. We gathered up the baby and listened:

"If you are in a safe area remain where you are. If you were sleeping, dress and prepare to move to safety. People on decks 14-20 please put on underwater gear and use the stairways to go up to decks 1-7. People on decks 8-13 be prepared to move to the stairways quickly."

Lacy, June, and I live on deck 8. I made sure Lacy and June were safe, and were ready to travel, then I quickly went to the bridge. As a member of the Council I need to know what's going on and need to help to coordinate whatever needs to be done.

I'll tell it as I remember it from here on:

There was an explosion in the biggest water storage compartment on the ship. The explosion blew out a wall that connected to a walkway and water came cascading out.

Thousands of gallons flooded the bottom decks of the ship. Doorways are close to water tight but not completely so. The lives of everyone living and working on decks 14-20 were in jeopardy, as was all equipment down there.

Fortunately, only a limited number of people live on the lower decks, none of them children, and every living and working area has underwater gear in case of emergency.

People who live and work down there are trained in how to get into the gear quickly and how to swim to a safe area once they are wearing the gear.

Still, 7 people lost their lives. It's hard to say why- panic, equipment failure, difficulty in navigating their way to "higher ground..."

Initial investigation, and there were crews in scuba gear down to the explosion site within minutes, indicates a human cause.

Once all survivors were safe and all doorways were sealed off the Captain and the Council held a brief emergency meeting. Here's what the Captain said:

"It is clear we have a maniac or a conspiracy on our hands. We will need to, well first we'll need to get rid of all the damned water, then we'll need to fix the hole, then we'll need to check for damage in every compartment on decks 12-20- the water doesn't seem like it will get higher than deck 12. But before any of that I am ordering 12 hour shifts for all security personnel, and I'm calling up all reserve security personnel and putting them on twelve hour shifts; that probably means 12 hour shifts for all personnel to pick up the slack from the reserves being called up. The very survival of the ship and all hands is at stake here. We're going to have conversations with everyone from the Captain on down, including all members of the security force. All security personnel are trained in interrogation techniques-"

"Captain, surely you're not-"

"Jeff, let me finish. This isn't going to be an inquisition. We're not going to use torture, intimidation, threats, coercion, or anything like that. We ARE going to thoroughly and extensively and repeatedly question every single person over the age of 7 on this ship. Somebody knows something. Somebody has seen, maybe heard something. It may not have registered at the time, but our interrogations will bring it back to memory. We need leads. Jed Clark found discrepancies in some statistics, and that led to us finding destructive programs hidden deeply in lots of computer programs and files. Somebody, singular or plural, is up to something that endangers us, endangers our very lives, as well as the ship itself. We intend to deal with this and to solve it."

There were a few protests, on human rights grounds, but there were only two dissenting votes when it came time to decide.

[Wayne23]

1/29: The questioning is underway. I was questioned for close to three hours today. Questions were asked and re-asked, and asked again, usually in different forms. I was asked about certain people and about things they may have said. It was pretty intense. The questioning is going to take a long time given how thorough security is being.

Hopefully we catch a break before something else happens.

We held services for the deceased today.

All of the damage has been at least temporarily repaired and/or restored. Final repairs and restoration will take quite awhile though.

Everyone is on 12 hour shifts until this is solved.

1/30: Back and forth early. Tied after 10. A mini-ruin puts us up 7 at the break. They come back to tie it. They're doing damage inside. Down 4 with 10 to go.

80-83. Their backup SG hit a 27 foot prayer at the buzzer.

20, 5, 4 for Wall. Their bench killed ours, 41, 15, 5 to 13, 13, 2.

Both teams hit 29-59 field goals. We hit 16 free throws they hit 15. But they made 10 threes and we made only 6.

-5 RBS hurt. Only 1 fewer TO; we didn't take good care of the ball, and we only hit 66.7% from the line. This was winnable. Hopefully we'll learn some things from it and beat them at our place and in the post season, if we meet then.

Two way tie for the MVC lead with 2 others a game back, and one team two games back.

At 6-14, 6-3, third place Drake next. We won by 14 at our place but they've been getting steadily better. Our bench, inside play and ball handling won it for us last time.

Their outside game has really picked up and we'll need to take care of that. We have a big edge inside. If we turn them over as we did last time we should be okay.

[Wayne23]

2/2: We take an early lead. Up 3 after 10. Up 9 at the half. Our inside game is hot but they're hitting threes. Up 2 with 10 left.

86-78. 23, 10, 4 for Mack, a huge game! 14, 6, 7 for Brad. Bench play was 22, 3, 2 for us, 7, 5 for them. +8 RBs, even in TOs. +12 in the paint, +10 on

2nd chances, +8 on fast breaks. Our inside game definitely won this one.

We're alone in 1st, 1 up on Evansville, 2 up on 3 teams.

8 to play, 4 at home. Next is 11-10, 4-6 Northern Iowa at our place. We won by 9 there. They are strong outside but they don't shoot the three that well. We should control the paint and if we do we'll be fine.

The investigation is ongoing. I have now been interviewed twice. That makes sense, I see everyone, and I go everywhere on the ship. The same is true of my staff and they've all been interviewed twice.

No new incidents but security is TIGHT! And no security member is ever alone. They work in pairs, just in case the perp is a member of the security team.

Things are definitely tense on the ship. I'm sure they will be until we find the perp or perps.

[Wayne23]

2/6: We take an early lead. Up 7 after 10. Wall has 10 pts. already. Up 12 at the break and Wall has 16. Up 15 with 10 to go.

80-59. Easy win. Gaut Wall had 24 and 4. 11, 11 for Star, 10, 12, with 3 blocks for Mack.

+15 RBs, 11 TOs. We held them to 37.5%. +18 in the paint, +12 on 2nd chances.

At 15-8, 6-5 Missouri ST. We won by only 2 at our place with Brad on the sidelines. They did their damage outside so Brad should help. On paper we're the better team but our D needs to show up; they can score.

The investigation is continuing. If security has any leads they're being very closed mouth about it. No new incidents, thankfully.

[Wayne23]

2/9: We take an early lead. Up 7 after 10. Haus and Brad are hot. Up 14 at the half. Up 14 with 10 to go. Brad is the difference; we didn't have him last time.

78-68 but it wasn't that close. 27, 4, 3 for Brad, 14, 4 for Haus. +8 RBs, only 6 TOs.

We scored 8 more baskets, but they hit 4 more threes and 2 more from the line. +12 in the paint, +9 on 2nd chances.

16-7, 6-6 Southern Illinois is here. We won by 3 there without Brad. Mack and Haus controlled the inside.

This is a game we should win; they have a lot of trouble scoring points. They play good D though and that kept them in it last time. We need to control the paint, as we did there, and we need to find the open man, especially Brad.

We have a 2 game lead in the MVC with 6 to play. We're ranked #13, NET #21.

There's a LOT of activity going on. Security is a huge presence. I think they've figured it out, or at least have a very good suspect. No one's talking though.

[Wayne23]

2/13: It's close early. A mini-run puts us up 7 after 10. Brad and Wall are doing the scoring so far. Up 6 at the break. Up 4 with 10 left.

61-60. Marc Brad hit a 24 foot three off a screen at the buzzer. Whew!

13, 3, 5, 3 steals for Brad. 12 each for Mack and Wall. Nobody else did much of anything on O. That team plays excellent D. Hope we don't play them in the post season!

-7 RBs and 15 TOs to their 19. Star was in foul trouble all night and did little to nothing, which is rare for him.

We won it in the paint, +6, and on fast breaks, 8-0. But mostly we got lucky.

Only Evansville has a realistic shot at catching us. They're 2 back, everyone else is back by 4 or more.

At 9-15, 4-9 Illinois ST next. We won by 9 at home. They have a very good PG and a deep bench, but they have trouble scoring. We need to turn them over and we need to find some O!

THEY CAUGHT THE PERP. Wilbur Wayne Karr, night shift security supervisor, has been arrested for seven counts of first degree murder, 1st degree sabotage, and 1st degree endangerment of the ship.

I know Will, and I have to say he's one of the most likeable people on the ship. I would NEVER have considered him as a possible suspect for this or for anything else. I'm shocked.

Will is, or was, I suppose, second in command of the night shift security crew and as such, was in every part of the ship every night that he worked. He had access to everything so he definitely had the opportunity. He is a computer geek, as knowledgeable as anyone on the computer team, so he had the means. I just don't get the motive.

I suppose time will tell. But we still believe in innocent until proven guilty so he'll get a fair trial, and he'll get legal representation.

The Council wants to act as jury but Will's attorney wants a jury selected from the entire crew, a "jury of his peers." We'll see what happens.

Security is saying absolutely nothing other than the fact that he has been arrested and is being held without bail.

[Wayne23]

2/16: Back and forth. Up 3 after 10. They go on a mini-run but we come back. Up 2 at the half. Mini-run. Up 2 with 10 left. It's a struggle. Mini-run!

71-69. Another close one, but they hit a three at the buzzer so we were in control, if barely.

13, 1, 5 for PG Josh Mill, 15 for #3 guard Jay Heno, 8, 5, 5 for Wall. We expected to control the inside but we didn't. Fortunately our top 3 guards really stepped up. Our guards scored 39, theirs scored 15. We didn't take care of the ball though, 19 TOs to their 21. Our bench outscored theirs by 6.

They shot better but we took 11 more shots, and hit 9 threes. They beat us inside because all of our bigs were in foul trouble for most of the night. I was not happy with the three blind mice but the game was too close to get T'd up, so I was careful and didn't say most of what I wanted to say.

It was a battle! Never more than a 7 point gap.

We have a 3 game lead with 4 to play so it will be tough for us not to get the #1 seed.

Last place Bradley, 7-18, 3-11, without a road win all year, is here next. Interestingly enough they absolutely crushed us at their place. Of course both of our starting guards were out with injuries. But our bigs had a poor night as well.

I expect to kick some butt in this one.

We're #11, 24-3, 12-2.

Will Karr's attorney wants him released until the trial. There is no way that's going to happen. He may get that jury trial though. The Council meets later in the week and I'm guessing they'll go that route.

[Wayne23]

2/20: Early lead. Up 12 after 10. Up 10 at the break. Their SG scored 26 last time. He got 3 in the first half. Big run! Up 26 with 10 to go.

78-51. Their SG had 8, nobody on their team had more than 9.

Sub C/F Uwe Haus had 22 and 4. 6 guys had between 7 and 11. +17 RBs! 12 TOs. We held them to 34%, 3-15 on threes. +18 in the paint, +8 on 2nd chances.

At 16-10, 9-6, 3rd place Indiana ST. We won by only 8 at our place, but our starting guards were both still out.

2/21: It will be a jury trial. We're working on who is exempt from the jury pool. Obviously, all of security is. The Council. People who had a close relationship with Will or with the victims...