Free Saturn Rukh by Robert L. Forward

in the habitats grew. The pull at the midsection of the habitats was now Earth-normal one gee, while the feet of the crew were at four-thirds gees and their heads were at two-thirds of a gee.
     
    “Right step ... back down ... Left step ... back down ...” intoned Jeeves, taking them through the hour of daily exercises that would keep their bodies from deteriorating in the free fall of space.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Later that morning, over their communal breakfasts of microwaved fruit tarts and coffee, Rod made an announcement.
     
    “Today, Saturn is in opposition—on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun—-which means that the Earth is as close to Saturn as it’s going to get this year—nine AU from Saturn and two AU from us. From now on, as Earth continues in its orbit, it’s going to be moving away from us instead of moving toward us, so the round-trip communication time delay is going to start rapidly increasing from its present half-hour.”
     
    Dan winced inwardly a little at that news. Pamela was already upset about having to wait so long between her question or complaint and Dan’s reply. He was rapidly losing control of the situation at home.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    Six months passed. The Earth was now on the opposite side of the Sun from Saturn and Sexdent. With the Sun in the way, messages back to Earth had to take a dogleg around the Sun by way of Mars, which added to the round-trip communication delay, making it more than two hours. This was especially hard on Dan.
     
    Pamela and the kids would normally call during breakfast from their home in Houston, telling him about what they did the day before and what they were planning for that day. He would get that message in mid-afternoon, since Sexdent was on Zulu Time. He would reply with a message for Pamela about family business, which she would get during her lunchtime. Her reply would come back early in his evening. He would conclude with a message to her and the kids about his day— which they would listen to around the dinner table. They didn’t bother to reply to him then, because their reply would have arrived after he had gone to bed, so they waited until the breakfast session. With the family living the life of millionaires, Junior got a new “Tasmanian Devil” sports car for Christmas, while Helen got her own limousine and a chauffeur to drive it.
     
    “I don’t like the sound of that,” said Dan, when he heard about the chauffeur. He trusted his daughter, but... He was relieved when the picture of the chauffeur came back. Instead of the young stud that Dan had envisioned, the chauffeur was a matron who looked like her last job was as bailiff in the Criminal Court Building.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    The months continued on, with everyone finding their own ways to pass the time. Rod was using the large holoviewport at the pilot’s console to get the full effect of the visuals on the fifty-first level of WARPWORLD, when he sensed- a warm presence behind his head. He froze the action on the game and turned around. Chastity was behind him. Her jumpsuit zipper was at half-mast.
     
    “Just watching ...” said Chastity, smiling cheerfully through lips glistening with recently applied lipstick. “You sure are a good WARPWORLD pilot.”
     
    Normally, seeing that much of Chastity would cause Rod to shut the game down and pay attention to her, but Rod had gone through enough “slam-bam, thank you, sir” experiences with Chastity in the past few months. He had tried to get romantic and stretch things out, but she always wanted to get right down to business. He just smiled back at her, then turned and continued his game. After a while she left. Later she and Pete disappeared into her habitat tube. Knowing what was going on in the tube changed Rod’s mood, and he saved the game before he got careless and got himself killed. He headed for the ladder and climbed down to the galley to refill his coffee squeezer. As his head came level with the habitat hatches, he