Chapter 14 (Part 2)

Like I said in the previous post, I wasn't done with this chapter yet. To be realistic, I should not make it easy for David to succeed in getting HAVAH attain invisibility. This will allow for better development in the story too, in this case:

1. Giving HAVAH the opportunity to make a surprise arrangement for David to date Viper, thereby accentuating her sentient personality, while injecting an element of humor at the same time.

2. Showcasing a romantic location of the Omega Base.

3. Using an innocent conversation between the lovebirds to allow David to discover the solution to what he's been struggling with on invisibility.

As I wrapped up PART 2: HAVAH, I'm toying with the possibility of adding a third part to my narrative, to bring Viper into the picture, but with a twist that will probably break the hearts of my readers. 

A good novel should provide readers a rollercoaster experience in their emotions, especially if they become endeared to one or two of the characters in the story. Dark clouds are gathering in the horizon, but I've not much to say at this point. 

 

Chapter 14: The Fresnel Effect

The past two weeks have been quite harrowing. I needed to figure out how to create factual conversations between David and his friends, while making it sound scientific and interesting and not turn the readers off. But several distractions interrupted my thought flow——leaky faucets that required repair, a missing coffee table leg from an overseas shipment (Taobao, what else?) that took up quite a bit of my time to get the seller to ship me the missing part, and some errands my wife asked me to run (I can't say no, right?).

Shuttling between writing and doing those tasks can be tiring, to say the least, but I finally nailed it:

1. An online conference between the trio. Prof and Doc offered their suggestions of hiding HAVAH's sentient ability but these proved wanting. David's bold idea of invisibility raised eyebrows but led to a more fruitful discussion, and eventually the introduction of a temporary female character from the Armament Laboratory as an intermediary to provide partial solution. Quite a big chunk of content here.

2. Of course, David had to put up a show for the staff of Robotics Laboratory about his "success" in creating a functional humanoid assistant, since he is using their facility (an allocated private work lab by the lead scientist in charge). This is the temporary solution offered by the Prof.

3. In the last chapter when Viper dropped in unexpectedly and found out about David's endeavor, he promised to introduce HAVAH to her, albeit not in full disclosure. Still, it is an opportunity to showcase some romantic interplay between these two lovebirds that will delight the readers. I guarantee it.

4. David's meeting with the person in charge of the Armament Laboratory, an expert in nanotechnology, to explore a collaboration on producing metamaterials that have cloaking applications for STRATOS' operation. Clever, huh?

Looking back, I can't imagine I could still sit down and write all these narratives, despite those unforeseen disruptions and undeniable requests from my wife. But that's the thing——you can't possibly wait for conditions to be right to start writing——it will never happen.

But I got a feeling the chapter is not done yet. We'll see. Now for a well-deserved break!

 

Now You See Me...

The term "invisibility" tend to conjure ideas of cloaking and camouflages where an object is rendered invisible to the naked eye. Cloaking reminds me of the movie Predator with its advanced sci-fi cloaking device. Camouflaging, however, is more down to earth and is usually linked to military application. The former uses light bending while the latter depends on blending with the surrounding, much like a chameleon. 

Finding an interesting title that not only sounds scientific but stir the imagination of the readers on this intriguing topic isn't easy. After some searching around, I landed on a rather odd-sounding but fascinating catch——The Fresnel Effect. It was named after the French engineer and physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (pronounced 'fre-nel') who was the first to understand that light is a transverse wave. The Fresnel Effect refers to the behavior of light when it encounters the surface of an object. Specifically, it describes how light waves interact with the surface, particularly at oblique angles of incidence.

At a basic level, when light hits a surface, part of it is reflected, and part of it is transmitted or refracted into the material. The Fresnel Effect accounts for the intensity of the reflected and transmitted light based on the angle of incidence. When light hits a surface at a steep angle, more of it is reflected, whereas when it hits at a perpendicular angle, more light is transmitted or refracted.

In the context of cloaking and light bending, the Fresnel Effect is related, especially in materials designed for invisibility or cloaking applications. Materials engineered to manipulate light behavior, such as metamaterials or specialized coatings, utilize the Fresnel Effect among other principles to control the way light interacts with them.

We now have an idea of what it is. How to translate this into a viable discussion between David and his two friends is a challenge I need to work on.