Doug Coulson, an unfortunate scientist in Stepford

Doug Coulson couldn’t hide his rage after he heard the plan to adjust the controlling parameter for Stepford’s women. He was having fulfilling life with his beautiful and docile goddess of a wife, a happy family of three with his adorable, and pretty daughter. He knew that he achieved this kind of life through an unethical means, but he had used to live with his ‘fabricated’ family for so long, he had genuinely in love with them, and now, his boss told him that the women in his family gonna be changed. “You can’t be serious? What kind of joke is this?”.Doug yelled. His conversation partner just listening to his rant in silent

The person in front of Doug was John White. John was the town mayor of Stepford, at least on the surface, his actual job is the supervisor of the whole Stepford secret project, while Doug was the leading scientist for the project. Both Doug and John were the key figures responsible to configure and monitor the parameter for controlling the female of Stepford’s behavior.

“I am afraid you can’t refuse the order, Mr. Coulson,” behind Doug, a brawny black-skinned man with a black suit said. Doug never notice the brawny man’s presence before he replied to him.

“Who are you?” Doug asked, he wonder why unrelated personnel has any say in this.

“Jordan Andrew, the Upper Management had sent me here to take control of the whole project, I will be the chief supervisor, a rank higher than Mr. John here, in other words, I will be the new boss for this whole project,” Jordan extended his hand toward Doug and offered him a handshake.

“Anyway, you may be wondering, why did this happen all of sudden? That was because there some change of interest in upper management internal, Doug, may I call you that?” said Jordan but before Doug could answer, Jordan continued, “you should understand that all of your life here all those years was possible because of the upper management support and approval. We, the upper management, had gone through long contemplation and consideration to issue this mandatory command, nobody can have any say in this, even me, it’s already a final, your choice here is only you agree or your out from this project.”

“I had brought the memory eraser if you choose to resign from this project.” Jordan took out something that look like a stick from his pocket.

Memory erasing device my ass! Doug realized that Jordan didn’t leave him any actual choice, he knew the tool in Jordan’s hand. It was not a simple memory-erasing device. Memory erasing was just one of many sinister functions of that mind-controlling flashlight.

“I don’t have any choice, have I?” Doug asked, Jordan replied to him with only a silent smile.

“But only I and Mr. John are here, we still need Mother Serena's approval to lift the administrator account in the master panel,” Doug said. Mother Serena was the third person who hold the authority to adjust the parameter in this town, she was also the only woman who did not undergo Stepfordization, she was there to limit the men to not go overboard with their modification to their wives. On the surface, she worked as Mother Superior in the local monastery.

“We no longer need her consent, I had her key pass with me,” Jordan took out a card from his pant pocket, ”It’s a pity that she chose to opt-out from the project when she heard about the radical change we gonna do here, unfortunately, she sneakily wanted to break our NDA but she got apprehended before doing harm to our project. There will be no more Mother Serena in town, good riddance I said, ” Jordan sneered.

_Dang it, this person is a sly snake, thankfully I didn’t choose to opt out, I don’t think that Serena will be that reckless to break our NDA, there’s a bigger conspiracy here, and Jordan had a part on it. _Doug thought.

“Okay, as we have the three keys, I will show you the control room,” John who had been keeping silent this whole time, finally said some words. The three of them went deeper into the town council building, they then entered a secret passage that lead to the hidden control center.

“We are here, please lend me your key pass,” said John. Jordan and Doug then took their card and gave them to John. John then placed the three cards into a panel in the middle of the room.

“Master Controller, start!” The big monitor in the center lights up as it was activated by John’s voice.

Administrator #1 detected, starting the Master Controller.

Several words then appeared on the big monitor’s screen.

• Targeted field: Stepford
• Population: total 700 inhabitants detected, 400 inhabitants currently under the system control
• Targeted specimen: Woman above 18 years old
• Behavior adjustment parameter: Custom parameter 1 ‘Stepfordization’ (woman above 18 years old expected to be docile, submissive, focusing on family, simple-minded, ready to be bred)
• Individual data of target: [access here to go to specific page]
• [Change]
• [Reset to default setting]
• [Exit]

“Thank you, gentlemen, as your task end here, I will take control from here onward, your presences are no longer needed, also please look here,” Jordan said as he took out the previous mind-erasing stick from his pocket.

“You backstabbing bast-” Doug tried to rush toward Jordan to stop him from using his device, but it was too late as Jordan blasted them with a blinding light that came out from the mind-erasing stick.

“Mr. John, can you please transfer your administrator authority to me? Also, don’t try anything funny, I am ready to neutralize you too,” It was more of a command than a question coming from Jordan.

The town mayor was silent for a few secs but in the end, he did what Jordan’s commanded, “Master Controller, scan and register Jordan Andrew in front of me as new Administrator, then transfer the lifted super administrator privilege to the new Administrator.”

• [Accepting command from Administrator #1]
• [Scanning Individual Jordan Andrew...]
• [Making Administrator account for individual Jordan Andrew.]
• [Please wait…]
• [Account created successfully, Jordan Andrew registered as Administrator #4.]
• [Promoting Administrator #4 as Super Administrator.]

“Well done, Mr. John, you may come back to your post while I adjust the system here,” Jordan commanded.

The old man let out of sigh, pitying the fate in store for his old colleague who stood in a dazed trance. He knew the upper management agenda that wasn’t informed to Doug, they were not only wanted to adjust the women of Stepford for this round, but also the men, he was spared by the upper management in consideration that he was in retirement age, he would soon evacuate from the city together with his family after the transition of authority between him and Jordan was done.

The old town mayor left the room as he ordered, leaving Jordan full liberty to tinker with the Master Controller.

—-

“Hmm….what should I do with you? Trying to **** your boss warrant a punishment,“ Jordan looked at the entranced Doug, an evil sneer in his face.

”Doug Coulson, 45 years old, have such a lovely life in his time in Stepford - a cozy larger house, loving family of four; one submissive wife and two lovely daughters …hmm, just the right specimen I need, let’s see what I will do to your family as a warm-up before I changing this city as a whole,” the black man monologuing to Doug who in his current tranced state, unable to hear any words Jordan said if Jordan didn’t command him to.