Three Nines Fine, Part 04 V1.3 (Regular Edition!)

Three Nines Fine, Part 04 V1.3 (Regular Edition!)

A continuation of the continuation of the continuation of the original one-shot.
See all entries here: https://pastebin.com/u/OliviAnon
V1.0 2020/09/29 is the initial posting.
V1.1 2020/09/29 fixes a typo and improves a couple descriptions.
V1.2 2021/05/07 converts from greentext to prose, attempts to improve some sorely lacking character descriptions, and fixes typos.
V1.3 2021/05/09 further improves a character description.

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A young boy's voice shouted out through the shadows of the orange sunset at the end of this long afternoon.

"LIVIE!"

Olivia spun at her nickname, skirt fluttering and bangs swishing through the stale summer air. Her purple eyes locked instantly to the brown pair belonging to the strawberry-blond middleschooler in shorts, sneakers, and polo shirt running right at her, arms outstretched like she'd just gotten back from deployment.

"Livie you're okay!"

He collided with Olivia's apron at full tilt, stumbling the surprised nandroid backwards with a hug so tight it threatened to break the nandroid in half, tear-streaked face buried into and staining her uniform. She automatically wrapped her own arms securely around him.

"Tommy! You mustn't run into people like that!"

Tommy angled his scrunched up face to her big purple eyes, the ever-dimmer afternoon sun glittering off his watery pupils like his older sister before him.

Livie I- I saw", he wheezed and sniffled, face contorting between grief and relief, "I saw Laurel and- and- and the-" he hiccuped "the truck and-" more sniffling "and Laurel shouted and I thought they were t-t-taking-"

Olivia interrupted him with her gentle smile and a soothing ruffle of his hair.

"Of course I'm okay! It was only a checkup! Didn't Laurel tell you?"

"Of course I told him!" Laurel shouted while completing her own still-barefoot stride towards the truck.

Alongside her walked another boy, considerably paler than his sister, his head of clean-cut brown hair coming up just above Olivia's shoulders. His everyday dress shoes, slacks, and the comb sticking out of his button-up shirt reminded Olivia so much of his father. Dressed like the very professional he was set to inherit the practice from.

"Tommy cries about everything." he stated like a fact, the wavering in his voice and his damp blue eyes convincing absolutely nobody of his authority on the matter.

Olivia reached out her left arm when he was close enough and he reached out twofold, practically magnetizing into the ruffles of Olivia's uniform alongside Tommy. The maidbot's arm curled around his back to squeeze him in close.

"Andy don't tease your brother. I saw tears in your eyes too."

"I was scared!" came the muffled whimper through Olivia's increasingly stained Sterling uniform. "I saw what he saw!"

Laurel stood to the side sheepishly, one arm crossing over to limply hold the other. Olivia looked over at her, which she flinched from, but when Olivia opened her right arm and beckoned her in she joined the group hug all the same.

They're all still together.

Dr. Penwell stepped down out of the truck's rear cabin with several sheets of paper to join Steve in gazing at the teary-eyed ball of family on the driveway.

"The cog didn't flag that?" Steve asked, not looking at his co-worker.

"I decided to score this one myself. Professional interest and all." Penwell replied matter-of-factly, also fixated on the group.

A pause hung in the air between them.

"Good."

Nobody standing in the driveway wanted this moment to end, but Olivia knew the doctor needed to move along with this trip. She felt no surprise upon hearing his footsteps' quiet approach toward the sniffling children in her metal embrace, cushioned by her now well and truly ruined uniform. A quick "ahem" called her eyes up to his.

"Your results, miss." Penwell stated while handing over a set of stapled carbon copies.

Rather than take the papers, Olivia gave the group an all-smiles squeeze and a quick shake. "Alright everyone, what's say we finish all this business out here and head back inside?"

"Okay." the group mumbled in muffled, less-than-unison.

Laurel let go of the nandroid first, pulling a deep breath into her lungs to regain her composure. A quick brush of her arm wiped away most of the tear-streaks beneath her eyes. A couple moments later Andy relinquished the maidbot and stepped back too. Tommy stepped away, one hand rubbing the snot off his nose while the other stayed firmly gripped around a fistful of apron. Following Olivia's lead, everyone turned to Penwell.

"Thank you, doctor." Olivia said over the sounds of deep breaths and clogged nasal passages, taking the papers in her hand.

"This being a Three Nines inspection, I've compiled a duplicate of your entire maintenance history along with the inspection results and the joint service request. You should put this with or near the warranty ticket until you visit the service center."

"Understood, doctor".

Olivia tucked the papers into her apron pocket where the glittering silver ticket already resided.

"Well that just about wraps this up. Is there anything else we can do for you today Olivia?"

She smiled sweetly at the doctor. "I have no further concerns. Thank you for your care."

"Pleasure's mine. If you need anything down the road, don't hesitate to contact your local Sterling office."

Penwell looked at each of the children next. "And you all make sure to take good care of Olivia. Parts for a nandroid this old aren't so common anymore."

"We will." Laurel assured with an determined nod.

Andy fidgeted where he stood before piping up. "You shouldn't talk about a lady's age like that."

All eyes went to Andy, who fidgeted harder as the new center of attention. Nobody responded for the better part of three seconds, before...

"Andrew, he's a doctor!" scolded Olivia while Laurel swatted the back of his head.

Penwell threw his head back into uproarious laughter.

"I see there's nothing to worry about here! I leave them in your able hands, miss Olivia."

"Yes, thank you," the freshly exasperated maid. "Farewell, doctor Penwell."

The doctor turned, still chuckling, and returned to Steve and the truck. Both men clambered back in and started the diesel engine. The silver truck lit up, the rear lights glowing red and white while a warning horn alerted everyone in a half-mile mile radius that the truck was about to reverse. It backed up several feet, then looped around the open asphalt area, passing the family standing on the edge of the lawn. Both Steve and Dr. Penwell waved as they passed, before the truck descended the sloped driveway. The group watched it turn right around the retaining wall corner and onto the main road, out of sight into the dusky summer distance. Olivia clapped her hands together to break the new quiet.

"Well, what say we return inside?" she asked the kids. "I'd like to review the new warranty with you all in the library, and then I'll start dinner!"

Another group "okay".

The group turned for the concrete pathway through the lawn, Laurel leading up the stairs to the porch and to the front door of the great big yellow mansion. Olivia brought up the rear, and once everyone stood inside the dim, cavernous foyer once more, closed the solid oak doors behind her with a thud that reverberated throughout the mansion. Moments later, only the ticking of the grandfather clock next to the dining room connecting passage remained.

A click of the lightswitch lit the porcelain bulb atop the cast iron post at the bottom of the spiral stairs. It lit up the foyer, and the oak door to the library just as grand as the front. Everyone meandered over to that door, opened it, and clicked on the library chandelier. The light doused the shadows instantly, revealing the reading chairs in front of the fireplace, and the table in between. The left wall-encompassing bookshelves still arched over the desk beneath them, and the right shelves still made arched over their inset window. And the gargantuan windows still let in what little light remained of the day.

But nobody paid much mind to the room while filtering in. Laurel first and foremost sank into the nearest of the chairs in front of the dark fireplace, while Tommy draped himelf over the other. Andy pulled over the wooden desk chair from under the left bookshelf, and Olivia stood center stage. Their postures screamed exhaustion, Olivia noted, with the passing of the immediate danger. All that remained was the lingering stress and grief of the earlier morning service and the results of Laurel's overreaction, as much as the good impression it made on the doctor couldn't be ignored.

Their tired eyes wandered around the library, looking at the many trinkets lovingly placed by the masters as heads of this ancestral estate. Olivia knew to value time and brevity here; there was still all of dinner to prepare and the children weren't fit to walk all the trips down memory lane this room offered right now. Have this talk, prepare dinner, and get to bed without thinking about all the wonderful moments she shared with the family in this mansion and how none of them would ever be the same again. She performed another of her mistress's huffs of confidence to steel herself.

"Pardon me for bringing you all here this late after all of that and presenting myself in such filthy attire," she began, recapturing the kids' attention and one roll of Laurel's eyes, "I'm sure you would all rather retire after today, but as of the court ruling and another Sterling representative's earlier visit, I have been given a special new warranty by Sterling Robotics to facilitate my continued service here. I wish to briefly review these details with you."

She reached into her snot-stained front pocket and pulled out the doctor's papers, separated the ticket out into one hand, and placed the remaining sheaf on the table between the chairs.

"This," she held up the silver ticket, "is the Sterling Three Nines Fine warranty, and the reason the Sterling gentlemen were here earlier. Laurel heard something of a briefing on it earlier."

"It's an infinite warranty, right?" Laurel asked.

Tommy's sat up like he'd been told Olivia was made of gold. "It is?!"

"In a manner of speaking." she answered while stepping forward to placed the ticket on the table too. "It's an indefinite stay of retrieval and a commitment by Sterling to perform any and all repairs I may require for the duration I am needed in service here, short of my total annihilation, which would result in replacement by a like but modern model. As a matter of fact, I was given an order for hip and knee replacements due to early wear warnings during the physical test earlier. The ticket is very important so we must not lose or damage it."

"Are there problems with your joints?" Laurel asked.

"No, just early wear from baseball practice, no performance degradation. However the doctor wanted them replaced now to avoid future complications. There is a service order in the papers on the table that I will be visiting the local Sterling service center to redeem in the near future. Besides that, I am fully cleared for continued operation."

Letting her words sink in left the room oppressively quiet, to her at least. The children visibly relaxed, but Olivia's hands squeezed each other harder in preparation for the torturous question digging at her heart since she first sank to the floor of this very room hours ago.

"So, if I may..." Olivia started, mind going a mile a minute to choose the right words.

"...taking everything I've said in mind..."

The three children sat with rapt attention, already with an inkling of what the vulnerable nandroid before them would ask.

"...would you permit me the chance to-"

*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK*

Everyone in the room jolted at the three loud rappings of the front door knocker. Maid and child alike turned to the library door in unison.

Nobody moved.

Nobody said a word.

Olivia wondered if the doctor had forgotten something.

He wouldn't be the first Sterling man to do so today.

"...pardon me while I answer the door." Olivia stated through frayed nerves, before swiftly striding past the chairs, past the shelves, and away from the gazes of her masters' kin.

She slipped through the library door and approached the two of the front, pausing to brush what she could off her uniform and fix her bangs. A click of a different lightswitch turned on the outdoor lights, their incandescence filtering through the doorway's side windows. Twisting the knob released the catch, letting a hint of twilight and lamplight filter through the cracked seal. A sharp tug pulled the door inward to reveal the visitors filling the frame.

"Hello madame!" greeted a voice straight from yesteryear's news desk.

Olivia blinked at the perfectly styled black hair resting above a pair of icy blue eyes in a face whose disarming smile couldn't quite prevent a chill from running up her chassis. His square-toed black shoes gave rise to a pointy gray suit that perfectly fit his towering height; his strong hand carried a Sedgewick Broadcasting Company news microphone. A wire coiled down from the microphone and back up to a behemoth of a news camera obscuring the other shorter but far better built and similarly dressed man, sans the suit jacket.

"May I help you, gentlemen?" Olivia asked up at the suited man through the gap in the doorway.

Without missing a beat a red light appeared on the camera and the man with the microphone raised it to his mouth.

"I'm reporter Frank Tallard with SBC News and in light of the court ruling earlier this month we'd like to ask, what are your thoughts on being the first nandroid to be granted a level of responsibility on par with its human masters?"

He thrust the microphone down to Olivia, who flinched at how close it came, while his cameraman panned downward to very obviously film the current state of her dress.

Olivia blinked again. "...I beg your pardon?"

"Are you not the nandroid recently given the legal name Olivia Craw, placed in full control of the Craw family orphans?"

"I am Olivia, yes, their current legal guardian per the court. Please do not call them orphans, they are wonderful children."

"Duly noted." he dismissed through his unwavering smile. "It is my understanding that the masters of the house perished in a fiery airplane crash in Germany only a few week ago! How have the children handled their parents' untimely demise?"

"The crash may be widely known but no information about the children has been made public. I don't know how you came across these details, but I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to-"

"Are they," he interrupted, "really okay with a *nandroid* being their replacement mother?"

Olivia froze like a deer in the headlights at the pang in her chest, her mouth shifting a little bit but producing no words.

Reporter Tallard waited three or four seconds, his smile growing wider at every tick of the clock behind her.

"Hello, Olivia? You haven't frozen on us have you? We did hear you're a rather outdated model."

The approaching sound of bare feet on hardwood shook Olivia out of her stupor just in time to dodge a very cross Laurel stepping into the doorway between nandroid and reporter. The cameraman made sure to discretely catch the flash of surprise on the maid's face over Laurel's shoulder with his gigantic lens.

"Who are you?" the blond girl more accused than asked.

"I am Frank Tallard with SBC News, only here to inquire about the recent-"

"We're busy." Laurel spat while stepping back inside. "Go away."

She didn't wait for Tallard's response to bang the door shut in his face.

Even with the thick oak barrier back in place and Laurel by her side, Olivia still saw his unblinking camera and pearly smile.