Three Nines Fine, Part 02 V1.3 (Regular Edition!)

Three Nines Fine, Part 02 V1.3 (Regular Edition!)

A continuation of the original one-shot.
See all entries here: https://pastebin.com/u/OliviAnon
V1.0 is the initial (hypothetical) posting.
V1.1 fixes a portrait being described as a photograph instead of as a painting as stated in Part 01, and some small typos.
V1.2 clarifies damage severity for triggering a full inspection.
V1.3 2021/05/06 converts from greentext to prose, attempts to improve some sorely lacking character descriptions, and fixes typos.

==========

There's so much to do.

The afternoon sun's shadows cast far longer through the library than when Olivia first entered. The burnt orange light lit up the room just enough to see, but not enough to see *well*. Not that she needed to, having known this room for her entire service life. The silver warranty ticket remained as reflective as ever.

Olivia raised her purple eyes to her masters' portraits above the mantle one last time. One depicted the bust of a great big man in a suit and neckerchief, completely bald on top and with some of the kindest blue eyes on Earth gazing out over the room. The other, a lithe brunette woman whose confident smile instilled vigor in any who looked upon her, even just in this painting. They'd bought her a lifetime ago to take care of their home and children.

Her mission remains the same.

She raised her empty hand to quickly fix her bangs and adjust her chopped ponytail and then, warranty ticket still in hand, rose to her feet.

Beneath furrowed brow Olivia looked the room over. A number of places to hide the ticket immediately stood out. Between the tens of thousands of pages of the books on both walls. In any of the nondescript folders and binders in the drawers and piled high on the master's desk wedged in the left bookshelf's alcove. Taped under one of the armchairs in front of the hearth, where the master spent his mornings with the Sunday paper-

Olivia quickly shook her head, bangs swishing side to side.

...tucked in a plastic bag under the carpet. On the back of the globe in the window of the right bookshelf's alcove. In the jaws of that *dreadful* stuffed deer trophy head mounted above the desk. Under any of the baseball trophies decorating the mantle.

For now, Olivia set it down dead center of the little table between the two fireside armchairs and turned for the door.

For now, it could wait.

Olivia gently shut the magnificent oak door behind her, and returned to the foot of the spiral stairs. Her eyes followed the curve up, today more imposing than ever before. The mahogany panels decorating the lower half of the foyer's white walls continued up along the staircase to the top. The immaculate oak banister, polished by her just twenty hours ago, shone in the setting sunlight through the front door's tiny windows. It ended in a swirl, from the center of which rose a cast iron pole topped by a beautifully painted porcelain sphere, originally lit by oil, since converted to electricity, and now dusted daily by the nandroid standing next to it. Twenty-two meticulously vacuumed steps, lined with plush evergreen carpet from which the dark wood beneath peeked out on either side, led up to her fate.

She shook her hands out of their absentminded wringing.

No reason to dawdle further.

She raised one foot-

"Ah, right...." she whispered, while looking down at her uniform.

Black headdress, black shoes, and a dress and apron sewn of black thread and cloth from shoulder puffs to skirt frills, the thin manual still weighing heavily in her front pocket.

It wouldn't do to approach them in this dreary uniform. Best to put today behind as soon as possible.

Olivia slipped back into the library, quickly placed the manual next to the ticket, and slipped back out. This time she walked past the base of the stairs, through the short connecting passage opposite the front door, and into the dining room. She strode across the length of the checker and pinstripe hardwood floors, but slowed when she reached the middle.

For a moment her metal hand ran along the edge of the table that held every holiday dinner she had ever served, the master at one end, the mistress at the other, and the children wherever they-

Olivia shook her head again.

Entering the kitchen, she passed the U-shaped booth seats under the back windows where the children ate breakfast. She passed the antique appliances the master refused to update. Her eyes caught her reflection in the sink window, where the mistress used to look out at-

A third, harder shake.

She finally arrived at a set of folding slatted doors at the back of the kitchen. Opening them revealed several coats, boots, umbrellas, and spare nandroid uniforms. Grabbing one at random and the pair blue shoes beneath it, Olivia turned and headed left, past the back door to the driveway and into the ground floor bathroom.

Pointed legs tapping on the tiny bathroom tiles, she switched outfits in a flash, her shoes trading black for blue with a click and a clack, her Sterling standard confortably in place and the black draped over the glass shower door. She'd collect them later for laundry.

She quickly judged her reflection in the mirror, fixed her bangs again, and mimicked the huff of confidence her mistress used to breathe before heading out on stage. Finally she looked herself square in her purple eyes.

"You're here for them."

She turned and reached for the door.

A thunderous *BANG* rattled the ceiling above and froze her in place.

Immediately the telltale thumping of someone running full tilt through the upstairs hall began. Olivia wrenched the bathroom door open and darted back into the kitchen. The footfalls faded towards the front of the mansion; Olivia followed.

She swept through the kitchen, at which point the running changed to the rapid-fire thudding of a hurried someone skipping every other carpeted step on their way down the stairs. At halfway across the dining room the house shook again from the *WHUD* of someone jumping down the last five steps.

An athletic blonde girl, standing a couple inches taller than Olivia, barefoot and still in her plain black dress from earlier, blew past the dining room connecting hall. She hysterically crashed into the front doors, one hand throttling the handle while the other scrambled at the deadbolt.

Olivia halted in the doorway as gracefully as ever, only her face betraying her concern.

"Laurel?!" Olivia called across the foyer.

The blonde girl spun around, a mix of rage and terror across her face, tears welling in her brown eyes. Olivia halted at the sight of the wooden bat in her other hand.

"Stay there!" Laurel shouted back, before getting the door open and leaping onto the porch and down the front steps, bare feet slapping across the concrete.

"Laurel, stop!" Olivia called after her shadow.

Moments later Olivia sailed through the door to the front porch railing, where she watched Laurel descend half of the front steps in the blink of an eye, pull a hard right, and sprint down the path to the driveway around side of the mansion. The late afternoon sun reflecting off the silver paint of the Sterling visitation truck caught her eye almost immediately, parked in the middle of the open driveway between the house and detached garage. The passenger side of its unmistakable ambulance-esque rear cabin peeked around the corner, the logo in plain sight. One suit-pant covered leg swung out of its open door.

"GO AWAY!" Laurel screamed to the thoroughly surprised owner of the pants, an older graying gentleman in a dress shirt hanging halfway out of the door. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

While he practically fell out of the truck, a younger second man, similarly dressed, impressively built, and just as surprised popped out from around the rear cabin.

Laurel halted just a few feet away and raised the bat.

Olivia leaped down the porch steps.

"Whoa miss, what's wrong?" asked the second man, hands shooting up in caution while he stepped back and the other regained his footing.

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING HER SO JUST LEAVE!"

"Miss, what are you talking-"

Olivia swept up to Laurel's side like a ghost and grabbed the shivering bat in an iron grip. Before anyone could blink the diminutive nandroid flung the bat across a full acre of lawn and spun Laurel's entire body to face her directly.

"Laurel what on Earth are you doing?!" Olivia asked with more than a hint of worry.

Laurel's face contorted in shock. "NO! You have to go back inside, they're gonna take you away!"

"Who is?"

"THEM! Right there!" Laurel shrieked while she flung out a pointing arm. The men looked at each other, their brown eyes wordlessly confirming each others' confusion.

"Laurel, they're here for no such purpose! Please calm down!"

"They are! They ARE! Dad told me last month! Your warranty was almost up and they were going to come take you away and we'd never see you again!" Laurel cried, tears now spilling down her face.

Olivia pulled her in a tight bear hug, where the waterworks finally broke and Laurel sobbed down into the white puff of her shoulder, each grating cry only sort of muffled by the cloth.

"They- they c-can't take you too...!" Olivia heard forced through the sniffling. Olivia felt a little bit guilty at how much she wanted to hear those words.

The two men stood in awkward silence, looking anywhere but at the girl and her nandroid. Olivia counted out the seconds while softly patting Laurel on the back, sailing straight past the recommended number in favor of all that she needed.

Occasionally a distant car passed the end of the driveway.

A few times, the leaves rustled.

Twice, a cicada buzzed.

Otherwise the minutes carried only Laurel's fading sobs as the nandroid's hug calmed her down. Eventually the silence broke.

"Excuse me, madames?" the younger man ventured after running a hand over his black hair and straightening his collar.

"Yes, sir?" Olivia spoke through a mess of Laurel's flowing blonde hair.

"Hello, I'm Steve and this is John. We're not here to take you anywhere, we're not with Requisitions."

"Please pardon my manners, but may I ask for the purpose of your visit? As you can see this is not a good time. Does this concern the new warranty?"

"The- the new what?" Laurel croaked, lifting her head a bit but still well buried in Olivia's shoulder.

"It does. We're with Sterling's home service department. We're just here to perform an examination of the freshly warrantied nandroid during the initial 14-day grace period to revert any unauthorized repairs or modifications made before the warranty took effect," he took a breath, "to avoid any avoidable damage and ensure the nandroid enters this new warranty period in perfect working order. A silver ticket should have been delivered earlier, yeah?"

"The Three Nines Fine ticket, yes. I received it earlier this afternoon from a nice Sterling fellow with glasses. Should I fetch it?"

"Company policy requires that you remain here with us until the visitation is complete to avoid out of sight tampering during the visit. Are your owners home to procure the ticket?"

Both the older gentleman and nandroid winced. Olivia felt Laurel tense against her. "They are... not available." she spoke.

"You're really not here to take her...?" Laurel butted in with trembling voice, raising her tear-stained face and glaring sideways at the two men.

"No ma'am, quite the opposite. We're here to make sure she doesn't need to come back for as long as possible."

Laurel shifted to look up at Olivia's purple eyes.

"There's a new warranty?"

Olivia smiled for the first time that day. "Yes, the Three Nines Fine warranty. A Sterling man delivered it shortly after we returned home earlier today. It's on the reading table in the library."

A pause in the conversation as Laurel sank with relief back into Olivia's arms.

"Laurel?"

A sniffly "yeah?" floated up from the poor girl.

"Would you be a dear and retrieve the ticket for me? It seems I'm required to stay here and can't fetch it myself."

Laurel looked up again, uncertainty in her watery brown eyes. "You won't go?"

"I will stand right in this very spot until you return." Olivia looked over to the two Sterling men. "Is that alright?"

They looked at each other in silent agreement "Fine by us."

Reluctantly, Laurel softened her hold on the nandroid, revealing several fresh stains on Olivia's crumpled shoulder.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Laurel reluctantly withdrew her arms from around Olivia, and Olivia clasped her own together at waist level. The girl shifted a bit to stand up straight again, like she'd forgotten how. She wiped a hand across her damp eyes, then down the side of her dress.

"Okay. You'll be right there?"

"I'll be right here."

Laurel shot another distrustful glance at the two men before turning for the pathway. Olivia watched her shuffle back to the front steps and up to the porch, glancing back every third step like the nandroid would vanish into thin air if she looked away for too long. After one final stare, Laurel entered the mansion, leaving the door open, just in case.

Now out of sight, Olivia turned back to the men and bowed her head.

"Please accept my apologies sirs, the children just lost their parents and are still in a bit of a state." She raised her head. "Were we meant to be notified of this visit?"

The older man, John, spoke up.

"I got the feeling George neglected to tell you when the miss came flying out of the house with a bat. We're really just here for a full inspection. Same as the inspection that judges whether a traumatically damaged nan can return to service."

"Thankfully I've never been that damaged, as hard as Laurel seems to try sometimes."

"Is that the miss' name?" Steve asked, "We're sorry for spooking her like that."

"Quite alright. She'll bounce back in due time."

As if on cue Laurel reappeared on the front porch. Olivia spotted the ticket's silver glint in one hand. She also spotted two younger figures she knew very well behind her, one shorter than the other. They tried to follow the girl out only to be sternly told to stay inside and that they'll all talk later.

Descending the steps rationally this time, Laurel returned faster and with dryer eyes. Though still with no shoes, Olivia noted.

"Is this it?" she asked, holding out the ticket.

Olivia accepted the ticket in her hand with a "Yes, thank you." then turned back to the men. "This is it."

"Excellent." Steve confirmed before walking over to the passenger door, "Don't let go of it. Unlike other warranty tickets, we are forbidden from touching it directly during the scanning process."

"Just a moment", spoke John, who now opened the rear doors and climbed in, "once the ticket is authenticated, you'll join me back here to begin the examination."

"See?" Olivia cooed to Laurel, "just a check up. I do have to get into the truck for it but it won't be going anywhere. You were either too young to remember or out at practice before but the master has had three of these performed on me during my employment here."

Laurel was silent.

"Laurel?"

"Okay! Okay. Okay." Laurel spat, exasperated. "But I'm staying outside here."

"Would you like to fetch a chair? It will take about an hour."

"I'm staying right here. I'll sit on the grass."

Olivia smiled again.

"Thank you."

Now it was Laurel's turn to look confused, while Olivia turned to the now approaching Sterling man and held up the ticket. Steve raised up a small, pistol-shaped, nandroid-colored device with a flat and shiny metal surface at the end, which he gently touched against the ticket's Sterling logo. Moments later it beeped, and his other hand gave a thumbs-up.

"Alright miss, we're free to begin whenever you're ready."

Olivia tucked it into her apron pocket and gave Laurel another quick hug before heading for the truck.

"I'll be back out before you know it!" Olivia called back, then stepped up into the back of the truck and let Steve clunk the doors shut behind her.