Fewer than one-hundred people on Earth knew of the Observer’s existence.  In his absence, Victor Booth had trusted Kent with the access code to the satellite. Observer was a breakthrough in science. Soaring in a low-earth orbit, pulse technology emitted into light particles increased the effect of gravity within the constrained beam. By adjusting the pulse frequency, the lens curved to see horizontally. Light would bend as Einstein had predicted.

It had taken Kent twelve minutes to find Khai Mohamed’s boat, The Eye of Mediterranea. Its name emblazoned onto the stern, the ocean marvel was returning from the open ocean. As the boat floated on the screen before his eyes, he attached a digital marker to the vessel on the translucent screen. The marker guaranteed it couldn’t disappear.

Now, as he rounded the bend and drove onto the dock, Kent’s nerves made him stiffen. The ship’s black hull mirrored the daylight, its twin-column dual mast stretched fifteen metres into the air. The vessel looked like a sabre afloat on the water. Kent’s vehicle rolled to a stop and he stepped out. As he walked closer, the ship’s name came into view, The Eye of Mediterranea. No one was on deck. He took a deep breath as he walked toward the platform that linked her to the dock. He considered again what he was about to do. It was no less than treason. Before his first step touched the platform, a man appeared, but it wasn’t Khai.

The best thing about science is that it is always moving forward. It may encounter speed-bumps as politics occasionally become involved, but in the very least it progresses in a five steps forward, one step back fashion. In writing a science fantasy novel one can allow himself certain liberties, but shouldn’t stray too far off the mark.

Einstein’s general theory of relativity was one of the greatest breakthroughs in scientific understanding. I won’t claim to understand much of Einstein’s theories beyond E=MC2, but I do my best to allow my imagination to fill in the blanks.

What I’ve proposed for this scene is straight out of Einstein’s theory that light could bend under certain gravitational conditions (light deflection and gravitational time delay) Hence, the satellite camera I’ve described sees at a horizontal attitude in real-time. Would it work? In OurGlass, it does, and it’s both terrifying and exciting in the same breath.

The beauty of science fiction.