Saturn Rukh by Robert L. Forward

the luxury of unrushed time with no one waiting, and had given herself a complete spray-sponge scrubdown and pedicure. Glowing pink, she exited in her blue nightgown with the elastic band that kept the hem primly at her ankles. Springing lightly from her toes, she floated slowly up the ladder—guiding her way with her fingertips—to the top deck. Everyone was in their habitats, hatchdoors closed for the night.
     
    “Dim the lights, please, Jeeves,” she said, and the control deck turned dark except for the emergency alarm switch at the pilot’s console. The ship passed over the terminator into the Earth’s shadow and the stars came out. Chastity drifted over to the engineering console to look out for a while at the stars before going to bed. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, so she could see fainter and fainter stars, her mind wandered back to the idyllic summer vacation evenings she had enjoyed when she was a young girl. She would climb out of her ground-floor bedroom window and leave the manse to wander next door into the cemetery of the country Baptist church that her father served. There she would lie on one of the wooden benches beside the path so she could look up at the stars and search for the planets.
     
    She had dreamed, then, of somehow getting away from the tiny stultifying Idaho town she had been born in and going out in the world to see new and strange places, perhaps even going to the stars. Although she hadn’t made it to the stars—yet—she had certainly seen new and strange places. Soon she would visit an even stranger place.
     
    As she mused in the darkness and silence, eyes taking in the splendor of the night sky, she heard the faint sound of music. It was majestic in tone and matched the majestic beauty outside the viewport. At first, she thought that her brain was just recalling some music that she had heard in the past. But as she moved her head back and forth, she realized that it was her ears that were picking up the sound. It was coming from below. She pulled herself down to the grating floor, and grasping the slots in the grate with her fingers, slowly turned herself around in a circle until she located the source. It was coming from one of the habitats. In the darkness, she wasn’t quite sure who it belonged to. She pulled herself over and put her ear to the habitat hatch. The music was definitely coming from this compartment. Then she finally recognized the melody. It was the “Saturn” movement from Holst’s The Planets.
     
    She tapped softly on the hatchdoor. The music stopped and the hatchdoor swung up. Inside was Seichi, lying on his back, bed strap over his chest. He turned on his side to look at her better, and his face grew solemn and distant as he recognized who it was. .
     
    “That was beautiful!” exclaimed Chastity softly. She looked past his head to see that he had an electronic keyboard up against his knees. “You were playing it! It sounded like an orchestra. You’re wonderful!”
     
    “Not so wonderful,” said Seichi, and despite his attempts to remain distant, he began to blush at the compliment. “I only placed eighth in the Yamaha Keyboard International Competition, so I went into engineering. I’m sorry my music disturbed you. I will turn down the volume.” He reached for the hatchdoor, but Chastity didn’t pull her head back.
     
    “But I want to hear more! Will you play for me?” she asked.
     
    Seichi hesitated.
     
    “Please?” she pleaded, reaching in her bejeweled hand to stroke his cheek with her star-spangled nails.
     
    “I might disturb the others.”
     
    Chastity turned herself around above the grating floor, and slid feet-first into Seichi’s habitat tube.
     
    “I’ll come inside then,” she said, snuggling down next to him and pulling the hatchdoor closed behind her.
     
    ~ * ~
     
    A few weeks later, it was time to leave. The crew had stacked away the habitats in the lower deck, and had rearranged their bedframes and