Vaz Gettnor Series by Laurence E. Dahners

“Vaz” is the story of Vaz Gettnor, a socially impaired, yet scientifically brilliant man. Despite his inability to relate to others, Lisanne married him in admiration for what she perceived as shy intelligence. However, she’s been disappointed by the way he’s settled for working as no more than a glorified lab tech with a low salary... more“Vaz” is the story of Vaz Gettnor, a socially impaired, yet scientifically brilliant man. Despite his inability to relate to others, Lisanne married him in admiration for what she perceived as shy intelligence. However, she’s been disappointed by the way he’s settled for working as no more than a glorified lab tech with a low salary. Adding to their problems, Vaz and Lisanne have two teenagers who are typically surly, embarrassed by their parents, but whom they want to send to college—if only they can find the money. When Vaz is fired from his job as a researcher, but then discovers a means to achieve “cold fusion,” a technology which could solve the energy crisis and their financial difficulties, virtually no one believes him, least of all his family. In fact, the only people who do believe are the ones who are trying to steal the technology from him...Turns out, if you’re a genius, such problems may not be as bad as they seem. less

“Tiona” picks up six years after the end of Vaz. Tiona, Vaz’s daughter, is starting grad school in physics, has a “bad boy” musician boyfriend, and does her own strange variety of charity work at a homeless shelter.Her professor has her start work on a project to try to achieve high temperature superconduction by doping the graphene membranes her lab partner has figured out how to precipitate... more“Tiona” picks up six years after the end of Vaz. Tiona, Vaz’s daughter, is starting grad school in physics, has a “bad boy” musician boyfriend, and does her own strange variety of charity work at a homeless shelter.Her professor has her start work on a project to try to achieve high temperature superconduction by doping the graphene membranes her lab partner has figured out how to precipitate. Oddly her experiments are plagued by bizarre movements in the membranes when she applies current to them.When she mentions the movements to Vaz, typical for his odd autism-spectrum personality, he becomes intensely focused on the movements, disregarding any effort at superconduction. Soon he has determined that her “problem” represents a physics breakthrough that could result in the production of a “reactionless drive” capable of lifting a craft into space!Not that Vaz wants to go to space, he just wants to build the spacecraft with his daughter, in the garage! Vaz has never heard of flying saucers, but the physics of the thrust effect makes it much more efficient in a disk shape, so, because form follows function…When they lift from north Raleigh and boost all the way outer space it gets NORAD pretty excited, especially a high-strung general who perceives their saucer to be a threat to the country’s safety. less

“Disc” picks up right after Vaz and Tiona’s invention of an apparently reactionless drive in “Tiona.”Tiona and her brother Dante want to license the rights to the new thrusters to big aircraft and car companies, using the money from the licenses to develop a private space industry. Vaz, their scientifically brilliant but socially inept father (who falls somewhere on the Asperger’s/Autism spectrum) has little interest in such a project, but is happy to have them run with it... more“Disc” picks up right after Vaz and Tiona’s invention of an apparently reactionless drive in “Tiona.”Tiona and her brother Dante want to license the rights to the new thrusters to big aircraft and car companies, using the money from the licenses to develop a private space industry. Vaz, their scientifically brilliant but socially inept father (who falls somewhere on the Asperger’s/Autism spectrum) has little interest in such a project, but is happy to have them run with it.So, they set out to convince doubtful major corporations that thrusters will change the world as we know it. Getting these companies to join the technological revolution requires everything from the massaging of egos to slapping the uncomprehending in the face with the new capabilities.At the same time, they are trying to develop their own space program in the face of some resistance from NASA.Then, just when things seem to be going well, North Korea kidnaps Vaz and Tiona. They want to force them to develop the new technology in North Korea and allow it to forge ahead of its enemies scientifically. By providing them with all the equipment they ask for and then threatening one member of this father-daughter scientific team if the other doesn’t work, they assume they can force the Gettnors to redevelop the technology for the benefit of the People’s Democratic Republic.That assumption is a serious mistake, Vaz is very good at turning equipment into weapons! less

“Invaders” is about events that occur several years after those in the novel “Disc.” GSI (Gettnor Space Industries) is beginning to investigate our solar system and mine the asteroids. Aircraft and automobile companies are beginning to switch over to thrusters from their more traditional products. New uses for thrusters are popping up in the healthcare and sports industries... more“Invaders” is about events that occur several years after those in the novel “Disc.” GSI (Gettnor Space Industries) is beginning to investigate our solar system and mine the asteroids. Aircraft and automobile companies are beginning to switch over to thrusters from their more traditional products. New uses for thrusters are popping up in the healthcare and sports industries. However, at Epsilon Eridani, a race of aliens has so overpopulated their own solar system that they must move many tens of billions of their people to another system before overcrowding destroys them. They send an exploratory vessel to our solar system to determine whether it would be a suitable place to move. The mere presence of another intelligent race doesn’t deter them—they’ve always just wiped out any problem species in new systems. When the aliens first arrive through a wormhole near the sun, their ship is thought to be an asteroid in a highly elliptical orbit. Earth isn’t even aware that an alien race has arrived until the aliens separate a lander and send it to study Earth. Attempts to communicate with the aliens fail. The aliens’ complete lack of any interest in communication with us contributes to these failures. The aliens are far ahead of us in biotechnology, materials technology, and wormhole physics. They aren’t really worried about any threats from the human race, but don’t recognize that we have advantages in computing and thruster technology. Will the aliens be able to successfully deploy their bio weapon, destroying the human race and moving their excess population to our solar system? Or can we fight back…somehow? less