Didn’t wanna take chances slippin’ through a crowd o’ blue bloods like this. I ain’t so young, or nimble anymore. I’m strong, but not like I... used to be when I was a wrought iron little bastard full o’ piss an’ vinegar. Slippin’ in is easy. Short little twerp left his invitation in his pocket. I wave it at the doormen as I come walkin?’ into this party maybe a little too ruggedly, and a little too roughly. People stare, and I’m thankin’ all the Saints under heaven, and beyond that I didn’t try. That takes care of a couple of years of engineering labs, too. Tina and Susan, two of my other sisters, did the 3-D printing of parts and some of the hardware. There are four of us." I whipped out my iPad. "This is our crew." It was a picture of the four sisters in front of the business end of the railgun."No shit!" Sam said.Brian looked at the picture and let out a low whistle. "You work with this bunch?" he asked Dan."Those four started at Auburn last June. In a year and a half every one of. My plan is to get a Master’s degree once I finish.”“Miyu, I know you’re just starting High School, but do you have any idea what you want to do?”“I was thinking of microbiology or genetics. They sound really cool and I love biology. But I have a lot of time to decide! Your degree is in computers, right?”“Yes, from IIT.”We ate our lunch and chatted about school, karate, and Aikido. When we finished, we walked back to Alumni Hall and Miyu went to her next event while I went to the sparring area. Dangerously high levels of opiates and their metabolites ... minimal higher brain activity. Jesus ... there was actual necrosis starting in her left leg and right forearm ... and ... oh, great ... a range of micro aneurysms in the brain stem ... tubercular nodes in both lungs ... Xav sure had some interesting friends, I thought, simultaneously wondering why this Protected one had been allowed to get into this state in the first place ... weren't they supposed to be continuously monitored?Ah.