The Last Man

[Wayne23]

March, 2159: 7 weeks after Lana got hurt. The fractures are not quite healed, and the ACL and MCL are not nearly healed. She’s in some pain but the meds help. She’s doing the therapy exactly the way she’s supposed to and the holotherapist works with her every day.

As if that didn’t have us short staffed enough, every adult except me came down with a severe flulike illness. They were down for the count for a full week. That meant I had to do absolutely everything that I couldn’t push onto the robots- day care, check ins, ordering and supervising any repairs and updates, meal prep- all of it. I averaged less than 5 hours sleep a night for that week. Lana took on some of the day care with Lacy and Adam, but I had the two little ones pretty much whenever they were awake. I love kids, especially our kids, but it was an exhausting week.

When the flu symptoms started to disappear Marcie, Joy, and Kevin did what they could to help, but they were all weak, and they couldn’t do much more than a half hour here, a half hour there. It was another week before they were back to normal.

Fortunately the weather was calm during this time. We had some rain, but no storms of any severity. There were some computer repairs, and a few perfectly normal ship repairs, but all in all, things went without too much difficulty.

When everyone was finally back to normal I gave myself three days when I only did what I absolutely had to. I caught up on sleep and rest.

Next: More flu, and still more flu. Is it flu?

[Wayne23]

11/14: 84-66. 14, 13 for C Al Epps, 18 for Rand. 40 RBs, 9 TOs.

#9 seed Gonaga in the 2nd round.

11/16: 80-58. 16, 16 for Epps, 24, 7 for SG Jam Wall, 9, 13 for Edds, 12, 2, 7 for Deqq. 54 RBs, 26 blocks(!), 8 TOs.

#12 seed Pepperdine in the semis.

11/18: 84-59. 16, 15 for Edds, 21 for Wall, 18, 7, 3 for 6th man Dan Datt. +16 RBs.

#7 seed, #10 ranked Pitt for the title.

Back up PF Dee Hirt has a sore calf. Out about a week.

11/20: 84-71. 31, 13 for Edds, 18, 11 for Epps, 13 assists for Deqq. +10 RBs, +7 TOs.

All 7 recruits signed.

12/4: 8-0, #1, RPI #1. Closest game so far is 13. We’ve played #2, 10, 11, 15 ranked teams. Edds gets 12.9 RBs per, and Epps gets 11.6.

12/25: 12-0, #1, #1. +21.7 PPG, +16.5 RBs, +4.6 TOs. #1 in RBs, TOs, blocks, steals allowed, #5 in PPG, #7 in assists and points allowed, #9 in assists allowed. Edds gets 11.9 RBs per, Epps gets 11.5. They are #1 and #2 in the country. Epps is #1 in blocks. Deqq is #3 in assists. Wall gets 19.7 PPG, Edds 15.8, Epps 12.4.

[Wayne23]

June, 2159: 5 flu outbreaks in 3 months. I’ve consulted the holoexperts on this sort of thing and they now think it’s not flu, but something in the air on the ship. I can’t even imagine what we haven’t thoroughly cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis, including all ductwork, and everything else that might leak germs into our atmosphere. I’m putting the ship holoexperts on that one, but I can’t think what they might find.

Lana is far from healed but she has been able to help me when we were the only two functioning adults, which has been more than half the time for more than 3 months. She’s spending all her time in the HC hospital so she hasn’t been infected with this thing yet. For some reason none of the kids have gotten it either. That leads us to wonder where the adults are going that the kids aren’t, but that seems to be nowhere. This is a complete mystery so far.

There’s not much to be done other than what I mentioned above. I bring samples of all kinds of things to the holoexperts, and they test what I bring and suggest other things to test that I haven’t thought of, which I also bring to them, but nothing yet.

Next: More illness

[Wayne23]

1/1/2056: 2-0 start in the ACC. We beat #12 Duke by 31.

1/15: 17-0, 5-0, #1, RPI #1. Edds and Epps both averaging 12.3 RBs per.

1/29: 21-0, 9-0, #1, RPI #1. +23.6 PPG, +16.3 RBs, +5.3 TOs, +6.3 assists, +6.6 blocks, +3.3 steals. #1 in PPG, RBs, TOs, assists, blocks, steals allowed. #3 in assists allowed, #4 in points allowed. Edds at 12.4, is #1 in RBs, Epps at 12.3 is #2. Epps is #1 in blocks with 4.0. Deqq is #2 in assists.

Edds is #4 on the Norton list, Epps is #7, Jam Wall is #8, Deqq is #27.

We’re 1 up on Duke, 3 or more on the rest.

2/12: 25-1, 13-1, #1, RPI #1. The win streak ended at 63. We lost by 1 at #19 Pitt. We shot poorly, had 23 TOs, and were called for 8 more fouls. We still have a 2 game lead with 4 to play.

Clay Edds is #4 on the Norton list, Al Epps is #7, Jam Wall is #8.

2/26: 29-1, 17-1, #1, RPI #1, +24.1 PPG, +17.9 RBs, +5.0 TOs. We win the conf. by 3 over Duke, 4 over Pitt, 5 or more over the rest. Edda, Epps, and Wall are all having world class seasons.

3/5: We expected a bad day and we got it. Clay Edds, Al Epps, and Jam Wall all declare for the draft. Edds is at #4 on the Norton list, Epps #7, Wall #8.

[Wayne23]

September, 2159: Marcie is healthy but Joy is dangerously ill and Kevin seems to be near death. We are in horribly dire straits and all of us are very, very concerned. The holodoctors can’t seem to help Joy and Kevin, and the holoresearchers have not isolated the cause of the illness.

The robots have cleaned and recleaned, disinfected and re-disinfected every millimeter of the ship.

Day 3: Kevin is holding his own and the holodoctors now think he will survive. Joy is still very ill but her life does not seem to be in danger.

Day 5: A breakthrough. The holoresearchers seem to have come up with something. The illness is a virus, and it seems related to the Ebola virus- it’s not Ebola, but it is similar in many ways. Since about the year 2020 there have been medications that are generally effective against the various strains of Ebola. We’re going to try those, one at a time. There is also a vaccine. It is not 100% effective, but it works for most people. We’re giving it to everyone except Joy and Kevin. If we can get them back to good health, we’ll give them the vaccine at that point.

Day 9: The meds seem to be working with Joy and Kevin. They are getting better.

Day 12: Everyone is healthy and vaccinated, including the kids, but we still have not isolated the source of the illness. Our fear is that if we cannot determine the point of origin it could well strike again.

Next: Disaster

[Wayne23]

3/7: #9 seed Clemson, 12-16, 7-11, in the quarters. We doubled them up, 88-44 here.

3/8: 88-59. 32 for Wall, 16, 13 for Epps, 16, 9 for Edds. +13 RBs, +14 TOs.

#4 seed, #9 ranked Louisville, 24-6, 12-6, in the semis. We beat them by 13 there. They have a great Center, but ours is better.

3/9: 73-57. 32, 5 for Wall, 10, 13, 4 with 4 blocks for Edds, 8, 11 for Epps. 3 TOs- for the entire game!

#2 seed, #13 ranked Duke, 23-6, 14-4, in the title game. We beat them by 31 here.

3/10: 81-52. 31 and 13 for Edds, 14, 4, 6 for Deqq, 11, 10 for Epps.

3/12 : 32-1, 17-1, regular season and tourney ACC champs. Everyone else has at least 4 losses. I can’t imagine we will NOT be #1 overall.

#1 overall. We’ll play Cal-Riverside, 17-14.

3/16: 72-45. 32 for Wall, 19, 3, 10 for Deqq, 10, 14 for Edds, 8, 10, 4 for Datt. +17 TOs.

#8 seed Utah, 20-13, in the 2nd round.

3/18: 87-64. 32, 8 for Wall, 20, 13 for Datt, 9, 12 for Edds, 9, 10 for Epps, 10 assists for Deqq. +28 RBs, 8 TOs.

#4 seed, #14 ranked Georgia, 24-8, in the Sweet Sixteen. They have a terrific SG, considered the 2nd best player in the nation, but not that much else.

3/23: 74-46. 16, 17 for Epps, several others contributed. 59 RBs (+26), 10 TOs.

#3 seed, #13 ranked Indiana, 28-5, in the Elite Eight. They’re stronger inside than out.

3/25: 82-62. 49-32 at the half. 21 for Wall, 17, 17 for Epps, 18, 3, 7 for Deqq, 10, 15 for Edds, 8, 9, 4, 4, 4 for Datt. +20 RBs, 9 TOs.

We face #2 ranked, #2 RPI Oklahoma, 32-4, in the national semifinal. We beat them by 15 here on Nov. 30. They are a very good rebounding team and their SG is the #4 ranked player in the country. We held him to 13 last time and we were +14 on the boards.

On the other side it’s unranked, #10 seed Wichita ST, 22-12, vs. #1 seed, #3 ranked Houston, 32-4.

4/1: 79-69. 18, 18 with 4 blocks for Epps, but he injured his back and will not play in the title game. 17 for Deqq, 8, 12 for Datt, 12 RBs for Edds, 11, 7 for sub Dee Hirt. +25 RBs, 12 TOs.

Amazingly enough it’s unranked, #10 seed, Wichita ST, 23-12, for the title. They have scored 5 straight upsets. They do it with teamwork, 9 guys get significant points for them. Realistically, we should win easily, but you need to do it on the court, and we do have one of our very best players out.

4/3: 78-52. It was over early. 19, 5, 3 for Wall, 11, 15, 3, 2, 5 for Edds, 15, 10 for Datt, 13, 5, 3 for Deqq. +9 RBs, +10 TOs.

Back to back titles, and we missed back to back undefeated seasons by a one point loss.

4/4: Awards: Jam Wall was the Final Four MOP. Al Epps was national defensive POY. Clay Edds made 1st team All American, and Al Epps and Jam Wall made 2nd team. I was national COY. In the ACC, Edds was POY and 1st team, Al Epps was defensive POY and 2nd team, Jam Wall was 1st team. I felt Kee Deqq should have been at least 2nd team.

Frankly, this is the time to go North. UNC has a great chance to repeat but weather conditions here are simply intolerable. I need to get out.

4/9: I’m going to Indiana. They were 28-6, 14-4, won the Big 10regular season and tourney, made the Elite Eight. They’re losing 2 starters but picked up the #15 and #27 recruits, and 2 others with an A rating. Team Prestige is 89.

Indiana is not all that far north of UNC, but it is inland and the climate is much, much more comfortable.

4/16: I need to hire a #2 and a #3 assistant. We get 1 mediocre, one lousy guy.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade. Approved! We go from C+ to B+.

Great season at UNC, and my 6th national title, 2nd only to the legendary old time coach John Wooden. Overall I’m 801-174, .822.

Looking forward to seeing what I can do at Indiana!

[Wayne23]

December, 2159: The virus came back… with a vengeance. Lacy, Amy and I are here. Everyone else died, in a three day period. I’m left with a soon to be 7 year old, and a soon to be 2 year old. I have lost two women I loved deeply, and two dear friends, as well as the two other children. This is not easy.

I have no choice but to turn over more of the child care to the robots. I absolutely must do the check ins and supervision of work, repairs… I can sometimes bring the kids along, but not always. Lacy can be left alone, with a robot in the general area, but Amy is way too young for that. She needs full time supervision.

And losing all of these people is utterly devastating to me. I was alone for so very long, and thought I always would be. To find a family, and then to lose most of it again is something I am having immense difficulty dealing with. I see my holotherapist twice a week, and I suppose it helps, but I am struggling.

Next: Trying to cope, trying to find ways to move on

[Wayne23]

5/1: I buy the national and international gold.

Preseason #15, which I think is a little optimistic.

6/5: We offer to 2 transfers, a PF and an SG.

6/9: Lost the SG.

6/12: We lost the PF.

6/26: 5 scholarships. We want 4 bigs.

8/7: We have no Norton list candidates.

8/21: We offer to a PG, 3 PFs, and a C.

9/18: We get 3, lose 2. We get 2 PFs, #5, #11, and a C, #15.

We’re going to the NIT vs. BYU. Our schedule is decent, but not as challenging as I’m used to. Wins will help us to quickly build this program.

9/25: We get one, lose one. We get a PG, #18.

10/2: We get a C, #24.

1st day of practice.

11/6: Here’s the lineup:

Senior Ron Leis and junior Rod Chad start at guard, backed by frosh Rob Lann and Bry Turn.

Frosh Sean Thom is at SF.

Seniors Lars Dean and Ron Leis start inside. Backing up the bigs are senior Jon Jenk, junior Joao Salo, and frosh Gary Gore. There will be changes, but this is how we’re starting.

We begin at the preseason NIT. We’re the #2 seed and we face BYU.

[Wayne23]

March, 2160: I’m trying to cope. It’s been three months and it’s not getting easier. I put a brave face on it for the kids’ sake but I’m dying inside… except of course that I can’t die, or at least it seems that I can’t. At 160 years old and still looking and feeling 35 it doesn’t feel like I can die. I never wanted to, and I never thought much about it, but now it all seems kind of pointless.

But I have two children to raise, and I will certainly do all I can for them. But if they’re going to spend their lives alone, with just each other and me, that seems pointless as well.

And I live with the thought that they may yet contract the virus that killed everyone else. We’ve never found the source so it must surely still be lurking somewhere. Believe me, I live in fear of that happening, and every time one of them gets a sniffle I am inwardly terrified.

My duties are pretty overwhelming. There’s no time for leisure activities. I’m busy enough to stay fit but there’s no way I can hike in the woods or climb a mountain, or play any of the HC or computer games and simulations I used to enjoy so much. I’ve put the basketball coaching game away, probably for good. There are too many terribly sad memories associated with it.

Both of the kids had birthdays in the past few weeks and we celebrated with parties in the HC. I did all that I could to provide them with a special day, but they too are sad most of the time. Lacy is devastated.

She is old enough to know what it means to be dead, and that her family is not coming back. She doesn’t understand it but she knows it. Hell, I don’t understand it.

At age 2, Amy is far too young to have any idea. She still asks when her mommy and the others are coming back. It tears my heart out.

Next: Life goes on. We find the source of the virus.

[Wayne23]

11/14: 75-65. We were up 17 at the half. 14 for sub guard Bry Turn, 12, 2, 5 for PG Rob Lann, 10 and 9 for C Ron Leis, 7, 11 for PF Lars Dean.41 RBs, 12 TOs.

#7 seed UConn next.

11/16: 76-84. Lack of D, more than anything else, did us in; they shot 54.3%. 18 for Dean, 16 for sub guard Tad Morr.

It is definitely a rebuilding year. We just need to get through it. Happy to be 1-1 for the tourney.

11/20: And we’re no longer in the top 25, where we didn’t belong to begin with.

All 5 recruits sign.

11/27: 2-2. A couple of lineup changes. Gary Gore will start at SF for Sean Tomm, and Tad Morr will get significantly more time as our #3 guard.

12/11: 6-2, #23, RPI #73, which is way too low. We’re playing good teams. The lineup changes really helped, esp. on D, on the boards, and with ball handling. Tadd Morr is going to start for Lann. He’s playing really well.

12/25: 6-4 to end the pre-conf. portion of the schedule. We ended with games against two ranked teams. We’re out of the top 25 again. RPI #78, which is still too low, given the caliber of teams we’re playing.

+3.5 PPG, +2.0 RBs, +5.3 TOs. We have 4 guys averaging between 10.6 and 11.4 so our scoring is balanced. Leis and Dean are our best rebounders but this is an area of weakness for us. Ball handling is decent, but not great.