Saturn Rukh by Robert L. Forward Read Free Book Online

but then the biologist in her recognized something wrong. “Zero gee?” she said. “We can’t be traveling to Saturn in zero gee. Although we’ve medicines to counteract radiation damage during long space journeys, we’ve yet to find a medicine that will prevent deterioration of the bones and vascular system from the lack of gravity.”
     
    “I know,” said Chastity. “That’s why the passenger module on a Mars liner separates into three compartments that extend out from the central passway. That way, just a slight amount of rotation gives a quarter-gee in the passenger module without a lot of Coriolis. The full-time quarter-gee is just enough to keep the body from breaking down, and it’s also what keeps the toilets simple in the passenger module. That’s also why passenger habitats mass so much. But we do things differently on a cargo run to keep the habitat mass down. Most of the time we fly along in zero gee. But once a day, in the morning, we put the capsule on slow spin to give a tenth-gee at the positions of the toilets. The Coriolis forces are nasty at these short radii, so some of us stay in bed and wait it out, while the others take their turns at the toilet. Then, after everyone is ready, we up the spin rate and do one-gee exercises for an hour to keep our bones healthy. During rotation the gravity force is toward the wall. When the capsule is sitting on Luna or Mars, the gravity force is toward the deck. The toilets can also work at zero gee, but they are best used at finite gees.”
     
    “What happens if you need to go when the capsule is in free fall?”
     
    “I would recommend clinching your butt,” said Chastity. “For the alternative is worse.” She sighed. “But sometimes, ‘when you gotta go ... you gotta go.’ So, open the door to the shower stall and step inside out of the way, while I come in and go through the motions so you can see how it’s done.” Sandra obediently scrambled into the shower. With a grimace, Chastity pulled the outer door shut behind her and stepped into the toilet area.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    “That was most enlightening,” said Sandra as the two exited the toilet. “You are right, clinching is the easier way out. I shall train myself for the morning elimination period.”
     
    “I’ll take the evening,” said Chastity.
     
    They were both surprised to see that three of the men, Seichi, Rod, and Pete, were all congregated down in the lower deck. With the aluminum tube taking up a third of the floor area, the facilities deck was crowded with the five of them in it. As usual, Seichi was keeping out of the way of Chastity. As soon as she appeared, he activated the inner airlock door.
     
    “I will make more room,” he said, entering the airlock. Although he didn’t need to, he closed the inner airlock door again.
     
    Chastity wistfully turned back from watching Seichi avoid her again. The hurt look on her face changed as she glanced at Rod and Pete. The two looked uncomfortable, and it wasn’t because of her problems with Seichi. There was a loud voice coming from the control deck above.
     
    “… I’ve only been gone four days! How could you have spent ten million dollars in four days! That’s my pay for a whole month!...”
     
    “Dan had a call from his wife,” said Rod, “so we came down to give him some privacy.”
     
    Dan tried to keep his voice down, but it still carried through the open grating from above.
     
    “Pammy ...please don’t pout... Yes, I know I’m worth a billion dollars ... but they are only paying me ten million a month while I’m on the mission ... I get the rest when I return ...” There was a long pause. “... Yes, it was nice of you to think of me ... and I’m sure I will appreciate having a nice house on the Riviera ... but it could have waited until I got back ... Honey! Please don’t be mad ... I do too love you sweetums ... and I’ll tell you more about how much I love you once we get our habitats set up and I