CH38 (117)
Kate had Elena way out at the bow of the ship as the wind blew thru their hair.
"Has he taught you to still your mind yet?" Kate asks her.
"Only before he has us do any exercises." Elena answers Kate's question wondering what Kate wants to know or teach her.
"An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening," Kate whispers to her. "Show me what you've got honey.
Stand in a normal qigong standing posture for five minutes exactly.
Immediately after completing your qigong, begin your Taiji form, either Yang Lu-ch'an or Yang Cheng-fu, it doesn't matter which.
After you finish the tai chi exercise of your form, begin walking quickly, not at power walking level, just quickly as if you have to do something urgently. I usually walk around and around my training area. Walk this way for no more than 2 minutes. This has the effect of raising your heart beat to a slightly higher level ready for the anaerobic part of your morning training. You will know when you have done your Tai Chi training correctly as this walking will feel like you are invincible, all of your hormones will be in balance and you will feel like as if you could walk forever. But do not walk too quickly, we do not want the heart rate to increase too much just yet.
Qi Disruptive Katas.
Only the nine original forms as handed down from Chang San-feng, the founder of dim-mak and eventually Taijiquan. From these nine, come all of the internal martial arts and hence most of the so-called 'external arts'.
The final stage involves only performing Yang Cheng-fu's form.
We must close the Qi gates after training. We opened the gates so that Qi will be activated during the form upon our first movement, so we must close the gates. There are three ways to do this. The best way however, is that when you come up to the posture (the final one), of 'apparent close up', you will bring your right foot in this case as you are performing on the reverse side, up to your left foot, touching the whole foot onto the side of your other foot, only one inch off the ground. Which means that you are now standing on one leg. Your wrists are crossed in front of you, shorting out the lung and heart meridians. After one minute, your palms will turn and push downwards as you push up on your left leg (stand up), then your right foot is slowly placed onto the ground at the normal shoulder width distance and you place 50% of your weight onto it.
We perform Tai Chi at the three speeds (two of which we perform in our morning training as above), for the following: Fast for the bones sinews and muscles, hormonal balance and internal Qi balance. At the middle speed for the mind, and the slowest speed for the spirit." Kate walked her thru each step.
"I'm proud of you honey." Kate hugs Elena and blinks back tears.
"Are you keeping up with your pills?" Kate wanted to make sure Elena was doing what she needed to.
"I didn't bring any with me." Elena is forced to tell her.
"ELENA!" Kate was shocked. She thought Elena was better than that.
"Mags is giving me shots once a week while we are on the ship, then I get a new prescription before I go home." Elena corrects what Kate is thinking.
Kate hugs her. "I'm sorry honey, I should have known better."
"It's only our second day on board mom, you and dad have been busy." Elena wasn't mad.
"I guess it's the mother in me coming out. I worry about your future. … I don't suppose there are any boys that have caught your interest?" Kate was snooping now.
"There are some boys he is teaching but none of them interest me any. … Alexis however has told me about Andre's brother who is in officer training school on Tellus." Elena cringes at telling her mother about her social life.
"Is he handsome like your father?" Kate was grinning at her, teasing her..
"Alexis seems to think so, I haven't seen him." Elena had only just learned about him.
"I'm not trying to push honey, but your sister has a talent. I don't know how, I don't know why, but she does. …. You remember your first BBQ at home?" Getting Elena to nod her head.
"Did she select the boys or did you?" Kate had a guess.
"I did." Elena hangs her head low.
"I had a feeling. If Alexis had picked them I'm willing to bet that I wouldn't have taken 3 of them home that night. … Do what you feel is right honey, but don't discard this guy just because your sister set you up with him.
What do you think of Andre?" Kate wanted her opinion. Maybe she had told Elena something she hadn't told her.
"He's nice, maybe a little too quiet for my taste and he seems to be happy to have Alexis at his side, and him at hers. … They remind me of you and dad. You both get this 'I love you' eyes going." Elena was grinning. Alexis had changed since she had been on Tellus.
Kate couldn't help it, it wasn't her business, but, … "You think they've, …." Kate trails off.
"Snooping mom?" Elena glares at Kate.
"I'm just looking out for your sister, that's all." Kate counters with a white lie.
"Uh-huh! … Well Alexis said no, they haven't, but I think they're thinking about it. And no I'm not going to tell you if she does tell me." Elena crosses her arms.
Kate knew inside that she was pushing boundaries, but Alexis was her daughter. "Ok enough of that subject, and I think we've had enough detective training for this morning. I think it's time to start teaching you how to get boys to do what you want them to do." Kate takes a hold of Elena's arm and they start walking for the door that leads back inside.
They were just cruising along with some people inside watching a movie, while others, mostly the girls, were out on deck soaking up the sun.
Rick had fixed dinner and Victor and Jenn were treated yet again to Rick's cooking skills. "We're going to need diets at the end." Jenn moans while laughing.
"I'll just be happy to keep it all down." Madison comments without thinking.
"Motion sickness? I can see if I can find calmer waters." Rick offers.
Madison however suddenly looks nervous, she hadn't had a chance to talk to her parents yet.
"Mags?" Kate was glaring at her. Cough it up girlfriend. Even Jenn was paying attention.
Madison however scrunches her face. "I'm pregnant." Madison whispers. The only one who knew was Shawn.
"Madison honey." However Kate beat Jenn to Madison and had her in a bear hug.
"How far along?" Kate asks.
"About 10 weeks we think. Only just confirmed off the blood tests results just before we left."
Jenn was next to crush her daughter. "That's great honey. Boy or a girl? …. Oh never mind, who cares. I'm happy for you honey."
Victor is next to hug his daughter.
"Another baby brother?" Kali was excited.
"Well we don't know yet sweetheart, we have to wait. But when we know, I promise we'll tell you." Madison was grinning at Kali.
"Why isn't mom pregnant?" Kali suddenly asks. Getting the room to go silent.
OH SHIT!
Kate stands and goes to Kali. "You better come with me sweetie." And takes her hand and as she is exiting the room, stops and grabs Emily too. "You too sweetie. We need to talk." And the three of them disappear down the stairs.
"Does Kate not want to be pregnant?" Matt asks as he watches his sisters disappear, thinking they are both in trouble.
This time Madison gets up and takes Matt's hand. "You're with me young man." And they follow Kate and the girls down the stairs, just to a different room.
Silence!
"Kids, can't live without them and you can't shoot them." Rick tries to break the ice.
"DAD!?" Alexis takes exception.
"Present company excluded of course." Rick grins nervously.
"Does everyone have phones?" Rick suddenly asks, pointing out everyone. Knowing Kate has hers.
"What do you think pumpkin? Round robin or teams?" Rick was grinning at Alexis.
"I'll get the board." Alexis hops up happy and gives Andre a kiss to the side of his head before she runs to their room.
"Ready Lucy?" Rick calls out.
"More than ready. You people are going down." Lucy liked being included.
Rick got stared at by Victor, Jenn and Andre.
Alexis was back first and put the board and the few game pieces it had down on the coffee table.
"We'll play the first game and you four can watch, then maybe tomorrow you can give it a try, since these games tend to last a few hours." Rick offers.
The Castle clan was waiting for Kate and the girls to come back, since Madison was already back with Matt.
Kate and the girls are finally back and find everyone sitting around the coffee table.
"YES!" Emily launches her hands into the air.
Kate has finally seen what is going on. "We need our phones girls." And the three of them run back downstairs.
"No fair pushing!" Kali complains at the stairs.
The girls are back first, only because their room was closer.
Victor, Jenn, Madison, Shawn, Matt and Andre all watch the Castle clan play the game while taking peeks at their phones.
Andre kept whispering questions or comments into Alexis's ear.
The girls and Rick were gone first, one after the other. "At least I beat dad." Emily comments.
"Did not!" Rick takes exception.
"Did too!" Emily fights back.
"You were out of the game first babe." Kate tries to break it up.
"She went out in the same turn." Rick counters.
"Emily exited on her turn not yours dad." Alexis adds. Rick just huffs and sits back and watches having Kali move over and sit in his lap.
"At least someone loves me." Rick pouts as he hugs Kali. Getting Kate to stroke his cheek and then kiss it. "Poor baby."
Rick simply sticks his tongue out at her.
Lucy was next and landed on one of Alexis's properties. "Pay up, HAL!"
"That does it! Who or what is Hal?" Lucy pouts.
"And what if I don't? SAL!" Alexis counters.
"I'll cancel your debit card." Lucy threatens, not that she actually would, but Alexis doesn't need to know that.
"I'll just get another one from dad." Alexis counters.
"Not if he can't." Lucy tries to look mean at Alexis.
"You wouldn't dare." Alexis glares at Lucy.
"Try me munchkin." Lucy counters.
"Ok fine." And Alexis explains Hal from 2001.
Lucy looks shocked. "So I'm a schizophrenic AI unit am I?"
"Well you called be a Munchkin." Alexis complains.
"And an Oompa Loompa." Lucy reminds her.
"Ok fine. I'll stop if you stop. … Deal?" Alexis offers.
Lucy scrunches her face. "Well, …. Deal."
"Are these two always like this?" Jenn asks.
"YES!" Rick, Kate and Elena all answer at the same time.
Victor and Jenn were not used to having an AI unit around like Lucy. It was surprising just how lively she actually was.
Lucy was the next one gone, leaving Alexis and Elena.
Andre was still whispering into Alexis's ear. "HEY! No cheating." Elena tells them.
"Lex is going to kick your ass." Andre fights back.
"Says the guy who is wrapped around her little finger." Elena counters.
"And don't you forget it." Alexis responds by kissing Andre's cheek, since it was still within reach.
Alexis soon had a bad stroke of luck and was soon gone.
"Ha! Who's your daddy now, huh? Who's your daddy now?" Elena does a victory dance over Alexis.
It was time to put the girls and Matt to bed and Rick opened a bottle of wine so the 'Adults' could sit around and talk for another couple of hours.
"Course correction is required." Lucy tells everyone. Getting Rick and Kate to head for the bridge.
There was a storm coming up on their port side. "It's a big one babe." Kate warns him.
"It's not traveling very fast but its wind speed is above 130 mph. If we get caught up in it it'll rip our sails to shreds. We only have 10 spares, plus it'll take hours for us to change one." Rick points out.
"I'm changing course and adding sails." Rick starts touching his control panel that will deploy sails 3, 4 and 5 on all three masts. "I can't leave it on auto-pilot like this." Rick warns Kate.
"The girls and I will have to take turns up here tonight." Kate offers meaning Alexis and Elena.
"Have Lucy send them up so we can talk to them." Rick asks of Kate.
Down in the main salon where the game was still sitting, everyone noticed that the ship started tilting dramatically and watched the game board slide across the table and fall onto the floor.
"Dad must have added sails." Elena points out.
"Feels like all of them." Alexis agrees.
"You two are wanted on the bridge." Lucy pops up on the monitor.
"What's up mom?" Elena steps in first and joins Kate at the monitors out in front of Rick who was sitting in the command chair behind them. "Wow! It's big." Elena sees it.
"We need to take turns on the bridge tonight. Rick will be first, I'm next, Ell you're next. Pumpkin you're last. …. This is the track likely for the storm." Kate shows its line on the monitor tracing it with her finger. "This is our course." Kate uses her finger to trace that line on the monitor.
"We're faster than it is, and it's kinda slow. But it's big, so you two keep your eyes on it, and don't get distracted. Let one of us know if you need help. And don't rip a sail.
You two better get some sleep now." Kate warns them.
Alexis and Elena are gone. "Lucy can you have Madison come up here?"
A short time later. "What's with the tilt?" Madison asks as soon as she enters.
"We've got a storm sliding down on us." Kate points it out on the monitor. "Have you had a storm of this size while you've been here?" Kate was curious.
"We've had storms blow thru in the past, but nothing with this strength." Madison reads the information on the monitor.
"We've deployed maximum sail to get away from it." Kate tells her.
"With this much sail we are a lot faster than it is, but its size makes it dangerous." Rick points out.
"It's the reason for the tilt. It will likely be like this all night. The girls and I are going to take turns watching it." Kate tells her.
Rick was left alone on the bridge, while everyone else went to their rooms.
Alexis was changing for bed knowing she was only going to get about 6 hours of sleep before Elena woke her, when she felt Andy's arms surround her from behind. Followed by kisses to her shoulder.
"I'm due on the bridge in a few hours." Alexis twists around and places her hands on his chest and looks up at him, since he was a full head taller than she was.
"I can wait, I love you." Andre tells Alexis just a fraction from her lips.
Alexis however shakes her head. "I'm done waiting. Make love to me."