The Vortex Evolution tetralogy comprises The Quantum Elbow, Storm Pilgrim, Quantum Heritage and Vortex Eye.

1. The Quantum Elbow :  – link here – ...follows the fortunes of Terry Gadson, a light aircraft accident investigator, who invents a device known as a Quantum Elbow – used in pairs or larger arrays these ‘QE’ devices are a new engine technology – it is much CHEAPER than rocket technology!.  By the time the invention is revealed, Terry is an old man, so his small firm, Gadson Aviation, employs a young protege, Jack Bachelor, to concentrate on Earth orbital business – launching and maintaining satellites and clearing space-junk left over from the rocket era.  No longer available from Amazon, free EPUB download available here.

2. Storm Pilgrim :  – link here – Joe Bachelor (son of Jack Bachelor) inherits Gadson Aviation and improves QE drives, then invents new QE devices to allow aerospace agencies’ long-cherished dream of human settlement of other worlds to slowly proceed.  Joe develops the radial qeser (a cutting tool) and the displacement-box transport device, which comes in 3 sizes: Radial, for domestic-size displacements; Diametric (later known as a d-box) for commercial use; and Double-diametric for industrial use.  This allows interstellar settlers to avoid building roads.  Joe and his wife Brenda have no children, and understand that off-world settlement will take many working lifetimes.  They secretly bequeath Gadson Aerospace to a colleague’s granddaughter, Annabelle Bennett, who is just 12 at the end of Pilgrim.  No longer available from Amazon, free EPUB download available here.

3. Quantum Heritage :  – link here – The third book follows Anna Bennett about 20 years later, as the 20-year patent protection on displacement-boxes expires on Earth.  Anna is an electrical engineer, overseeing maintenance and repairs.  She has helped the Bachelors make several small QE advances during the patent period for the displacement-box, including a diametric qeser – not very good as a cutting tool, but making all dispacement-boxes technically simpler.

Aerospace agencies are considering settlement of a second world, now that settler world Hyacinth has a stable economy, several small villages, and is approaching self-sufficiency.  Hyacinth is regarded on Earth as a small-scale success.  Joe and Brenda Bachelor are getting old and Anna inherits management of Gadson Aerospace, now wholly managed from Hyacinth, so goes to live there to continue the Bachelors’ work.  She modifies the QE technology to allow mining, on Hyacinth and also on asteroids in zero-G.  No longer available from Amazon, free EPUB download available here.

4. Vortex Eye :  – link here – Anna Bennet inherits ownership of Gadson Aerospace, but at a terrible price!  Her son, and assumed heir, is killed in the assassination of Joe Bachelor, the previous owner.  She must manage events on Hyacinth to make it more than just a ‘client world’ of Earth, subject to the political, commercial and religious violence so common on Earth.  Earth’s main problem is overpopulation – and the general public knows that – but politicians will not accept population reduction.  It continues to increase.  Settler worlds will continue to be small-scale while Earth’s industrial-scale remains its biggest problem as well as its main strength.