The rest of the conversation felt a blur to Jon as he felt his energy quickly fading. Dr. Alvarez had assured him it was natural following such intensive surgery, and coming out of what was essentially a medically induced coma. He found himself being led, unsteady on his new, somewhat longer legs, by Tracey down the hall and into a private suite in the recovery ward. The room was beautiful, looking like something you'd see at a high end spa or resort, but Jon barely noticed it before allowing Tracey to guide him into collapsing on the plush bed. Overwhelmed and exhausted, he didn't pay any attention to Tracey turning on a white noise machine as she left the room. It was just broadcasting low calming ambient noise anyways, that quickly sent him off to sleep.
He was well and truly knocked out by the time small, barely audible messages began to be hypnotically woven into the noise. "You are a woman, Your name is Sierra, you have the body of a woman, You call yourself Sierra, you think of yourself as a woman, it only makes sense, You love being named Sierra, you see a woman in the mirror because you are a woman, it's wonderful, you were once a girl, but now a woman." It was a simple repetitive pair of commandments, designed to sink into his subconscious.
The new Sierra didn't know it at the moment, but she had actually had one of the more pleasant awakenings. Not all the patients had a personal assistant, and instant one on one attention from their head doctor, and that was by design. From the moment they awoke, their experiences were tailor designed to help accelerate their acclimation to their new identities. In Sierra's, a very wealthy woman's, case, that meant making her feel her new privilege right away. Her whole recovery was meant to mimic the aesthetic and customs of an expensive spa or resort, with lots of one on one attention from nominally subservient employees.
Others, like the new Jeanette, had received a more disciplined awakening, immediately moved to a dormitory style accommodation where a matron would begin to mold the new French maid. A lot of the actual molding was done with the same methods, subliminal messaging, immersion in evidence of the new identity, positive reinforcement were the same, but while Sierra was subtly being reminded that she deserved to be served, Jeanette would be taught the reverse.
Tracey forced down her nervousness as she stepped into the main office of the center, where she'd be meeting with her boss. The mysterious executive in charge of Femcorp's take over had duplicate offices in each of the centers, and today she was working out of theirs. Normally, someone of Tracey's level would be too low on the totem pole to meet directly with the enigmatic leader known only as Control, but apparently the boss had requested her specifically once she put her main charge, Sierra, to bed.
The office was dominated by a massive bank of monitors, cycling through live feeds of myriad parts of the massive operation. Construction workers rebuilding and remodeling the town, citizens undergoing readjustment, and more all flitted across the screens. Her boss was turned away from her watching the videos, forcing Tracey to clear her throat to get her attention. "You wanted to see me, ma'am?" Tracey asked.
The chair swung around to reveal a tall striking Scandinavian woman in her mid thirties with jet black hair tied back in a tight bun, and an obviously tailor made slate grey skirt suit. She considered Tracey for a moment with unblinking icy blue eyes before responding, "How goes your assignment, Tracey?"
Tracey squirmed a little under the scrutiny, but still answered promptly, "Everything is within expected parameters, ma'am. Sierra's naturally still a little resistant, I think she might currently be planning to make a run for it once she's out of the center, but she's only just woken up. I'm confident she'll be well adjusted within the standard timeframe." Sierra's response was actually part of the reason the phrased the conversion as an experiment, even though they had no intention of ever ending it. By implying an eventual end date, they often found their subjects went along easier, thinking they just had to get through it, and being drawn deeper into their new lives in the meantime. Tracey was naturally a little nervous; Sierra was the first one on one adjustments she'd been trusted with at any of Femcorp's conversion sites. Tracey was one of the hundreds of 'Facilitators' added to the town's population to continuously reinforce and assist with the town's conversion. If everything went well, she'd be tied to the new trophy wife for possibly years as Lakeview developed, and it was fair to say that her future advancement at Femcorp rested on her success with the new blonde.
"Of course," Control drawled, "she's only just woken up after all. I have every confidence in you Tracey; I think you'll go on to do great things at this company."
Tracey flushed under the praise, not expecting to have caught the interest of one of the higher ups. Not that she hadn't been hoping for it; that's a big part of why she'd fought to be on the Lakeview project. It was the largest conversion operation the company had attempted so far, and was intended to be a proof of concept for similar scale projects moving forward. Previous conversions tended to be much smaller in scale, focusing on individuals or small groups, a single school or business at the most; Lakeview was different. They were doing simultaneous conversions of the entire 10,000 plus population, creating an entire planned social hierarchy from the ground up. That didn't even take into account the dozens and dozens of ancillary sites they were operating simultaneously across the country, altering records and implanting memories to give the new Lakeview populace ties to the wider world. Suffice to say it was a massive undertaking, and a big opportunity for an ambitious employee to prove herself.
"That said, I'm curious about your analytical abilities. Give me an overview of your charge's role," Control casually commanded.
Tracey nodded sharply, "Sierra Richards, maiden name Maddox, is a 3S citizen. That is to say she's a phase three convertee, requiring major alterations, and is an S rank citizen, maximum priority."
Control tsked, "I'm not looking for a recitation of administrative information, I want to test your insight."
Tracey suppressed a grimace but continued, "Yes ma'am. Sierra is meant to serve a complex series of purposes in the new Lakeview society, but there are a few main ones. One, she's intended as a 'prize' so to speak for Olivia Richards, who's planned to be the main operator of our new subsidiary corp here in Lakeview. Olivia's performance as CEO is of critical importance so her homelife has been designed to be largely idyllic, with Sierra a major component of that. A younger, loving, attractive, supportive wife will act as a key balancing piece for managing Mrs. Richard's psychology to promote peak performance."
Control nodded slightly, letting the Facilitator relax infinitesimally. Tracey took a breath and continued, "Sierra will also work as a motivator for other citizens of Lakeview; by seeing Olivia with Sierra, they'll associate career success and earnings directly with romantic success, driving them to work harder." At the end of the day, despite their radical ideas and methods, Femcorp was a decidedly capitalist enterprise and could be quite mercenary in their thinking. "Conversely, Sierra will also act as an object of jealousy for others due to her privileged position as Olivia's wife, which plays into the planned psychological profiles of many other citizens." While Femcorp was, as the name implied, focused on promoting women, it wanted to promote them in a certain mold. Namely, it wanted them to be fit, attractive, confident and socially dominant, all qualities Sierra would serve as a paragon for. "Finally, Olivia and Sierra will in concert act as an ideal example couple for when younger generations of Lakeview citizens begin to form relationships organically." The goal was of course for Lakeview to eventually become largely self sustaining, but only once the ideals and culture of Femcorp had become firmly implanted. That meant the vast majority of positions of power and privilege being filled by women, a large proportion of lesbian relationships, men being largely subservient etc.
Tracey waited nervously, but eventually Control favored her with a small smile, "A satisfactory analysis. Thank you for your time, I'm sure you'll wish to get some sleep before your charge awakes."
