Saturn Rukh

Metastable helium is the rocket fuel of the future in this entertaining hard SF novel from physicist Forward (Camelot 30K). Entrepreneur Art Dooley is the representative of a consortium that has raised the funds necessary to send six scientists (at a salary of $1 billion each) and a meta-factory on a dangerous voyage to Saturn, where helium is plentiful. The crew can survive their mission only if their space factory produces enough fuel for their return. Soon after reaching the ringed giant, their lives and the mission are jeopardized, threatening a great loss not only for them but for all humanity. If the mission fails, our species, because of the prohibitive cost, may never return to Saturn-and there, the crew has learned, lives a sentient species that the humans' resident biologist classifies as a ""Rukh""-after the giant flying Rocs of myth. Each of the giant creatures, four kilometers long, has two brains, one male, one female. Helpful and charming, they are limited only by lack of technological know-how. The plot hinges on whether Petra, the singularly brave female brain of one Rukh, can help the stalwart crew before they starve, or are crushed by Saturn's atmosphere. While Forward's technological detail is imaginative and, as always, impeccable, the story suffers from a Beach Blanket Bingo atmosphere aboard the humans' ship, whose complement includes the studly pilot Rod Morgan, the bodacious Chastity Blaze, as well as a ""greenie"" biologist named Sandra Green. Not including the spunky Petra, the only other female mentioned is a shrewish Earthbound wife. Despite its simplistic attitudes toward women (babes or bitches) and scientists (naive heroes), however, this story engages with its strong science and fetching aliens. (Mar.)