I recently re-read a book that I first read 30 years ago; The Clouds of
Saturn by Michael McCollum.  The premise of the story is that due to a
rise in solar output that would turn Earth into an almost-Venus,
humanity spends a century trying to find fixes and then a solution to
save humanity.  The result is that they build massive floating cities
within a "temperate" zone in Saturn.  This area has a felt gravity and
pressure similar to Earth (+/- a few %) and the cities are constructed
as giant balloon-like structures. Travel is either by dirigible or
aircraft, with some aircraft being able to reach orbit and interface
with the Titan colonies for raw materials.

That said, whether it can be done or not is not part of the discussion,
but rather the author's description of a completely alien environment,
how he describes combat among the clouds, the dangers, and all the
rest.  It really gives a lot of good ideas for combat during refueling,
potential "hidden" colonies/outposts/ports that could even be along the
lines of Port Royal...

Is it the most realistic?  No.  Does it certainly generate a sense of
adventure and ideas?  Absolutely.  The tech appears to between TL-10 at
a high for some things and TL-8 for others.  For example, it takes 3
months (IIRC) to go from Saturn to Earth while a primary defense
computer was the size of a portable cooler.

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me

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