Snow White retold in space? Hmmm… 👩‍🚀

In the world of fairy-tale retellings, not many have a sci-fi vibe. So when an author friend challenged me to write one in 2000 words or less, I jumped on the challenge.

Please enjoy this short read that reimagines Snow White as a space mechanic in an asteroid-mining colony. Bonus points for matching up the seven mining robots with their Dwarf cousins!

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Bianca and the Hepta-Bots

“Bianca, run…now!” Glancing over his shoulder, Hunter prodded her toward the airlock.

For months, Bianca Nieves had longed for his touch—but not like this. Given asteroid Davida’s one-tenth gravity, the security officer’s nudge almost toppled her. She caught herself on the hatch’s handle. Rounded on him.

“And go where?” Bianca straightened, smoothing the front of her greasy mechanic’s jumpsuit. “Just ‘coz Captain Reina got bad advice from the station’s AI doesn’t mean I need to bolt.”

Hunter’s blue eyes shone with laser intensity. “I heard what Espy told her: Technician Nieves hides her superior intelligence from the men. And the AI’s conclusion? She’s either wary of discrimination—or a spy. Guess which story Reina believed?”

Bianca’s shoulders sagged. “She’s hated me since day one.”

“Probably for your singing voice.” Hunter winked and spun the wheel to open the hatch.

Her cheeks warmed, recalling when she’d been jogging joyfully on the treadmill, crooning along with her earbuds’ playlist of vintage hymns. Until handsome Hunter slipped into the gym, breaking her stride, leaving her tangled in the bungee-cord restraints like an abandoned marionette.

She felt like a puppet on a string now.

Hunter handed her a spacesuit. “This has enough air to get you to the secondary mines. There’s an emergency habitat down Shaft Charlie. Stay there until I come for you.”

Sighing, Bianca donned the suit. It smelled of dusty plastic. As she activated the air supply, a breeze tickled her dark bangs.

“What about you?” she said through the helmet’s intercom.

Hunter seemed to force a smile. “I’ll come up with something.” He retreated from the airlock. Sealed the inner hatch.

Bianca hummed to herself, awaiting depressurization.

Then the atmosphere fled, the outer door opened, and she crossed the threshold, wondering if she’d ever return.

The rhythmic crunch of gravel under her weighted boots seemed to say no.

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Within the first kilometer, Bianca passed robotic transports, their spiked wheels hungry teeth. In the distance, someone drove a surveying rig away from her. Everyone else was underground, shielded from radiation yet risking death for the sake of troves of nickel, cobalt, and water-ice.

Despite a mechanic’s familiarity with confined spaces, Bianca disliked going into the mines. As she neared the entrance to Shaft Charlie, her skin prickled with a cold sweat.

Then stark shadows from distant sunlight gave way to a pitch-black maw. Bianca turned on her helmet’s lights and eased down the sloping tunnel. An automated boring machine had left its spiral scars on the speckled black walls. She imagined herself entering some alien mega-beast’s belly.

“This little light of mine…” She plodded downward, voice shaky. Where was this emergency habitat? Was it heated? The airless chill had already penetrated her gloves.

Narrower side shafts branched left and right, but she dared not deviate.

That is, until collapsed stone blocked the way ahead.

Her singing tapered. Backtracking, she picked a branch and followed it until it, too, became a dead end. Other tunnels split off. Bianca chose one, then another, then another. Had she taken two rights and a left…or two lefts and a right? The ceiling seemed lower at each turn; the tunnel constricted around her. A tightness squeezed her chest. She gulped air…too fast.

Beep-beep.

Something flashed on her faceplate display. Why was it so blurry?

Then Bianca made out the words.

OXYGEN LOW.

Her stomach leapt to her throat. A shroud smothered her mind and squelched her song. But a worm invaded her thoughts, an ugly notion she hadn’t previously considered.

Hunter betrayed you.

He’d sent her here. To get lost in this maze. To suffocate and die.

Captain Reina would be pleased.

Bianca sank to her knees, her tongue thick, clumsy. “God, help me…”

More beeps. A warning in red, flashing, fading…

Then all was black.

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Whirring gears and synthetic voices seeped into Bianca’s awareness. A snugness wrapped her prone body, and soft pressure kissed her nose and cheeks. A hiss of air startled her.

Where’s my helmet?!

Bianca snapped awake. A panorama of golden-glowing eyes greeted her. Robots—short, copper-colored. She sat up quickly. They withdrew a mechanical step, speaking to one another in buzzy phrases.

“Well done, One!” “Bah! We’ve work to do.” “Be kind, Two.” “She’s…b-b-beautiful.”

Bianca tried to say, Who are you—but what she now recognized as an oxygen mask made it sound like, Hoo-a-woo.

“Is that your name?” The bot with the numeral 1 emblazoned on its chest approached. “Welcome, Hoo-a-woo. I’m Hepta-Bot One. Most fortuitous that we uncovered you in the mine—”

Bianca paled. Ripped off the mask. “Uncovered?” She peeked beneath the silver blanket that encompassed her. Seeing her jumpsuit securely zipped induced a sigh. She showed her nametag. “I’m Nieves. Bianca Nieves. What’s a hepta…?”

“Hepta-Bots. A specialized team of seven with diverse mining functions to account for the geological complexities—”

“Give it a rest, One.” The interruption came from Bot Two. It stomped toward her spacesuit, folded on the metal floor of what must be the emergency habitat. “She can put this back on and leave us alone.”

“Don’t make her go…” said another.

Bot Two grabbed Bianca’s helmet and chucked it at her defender, who deflected it. “I’ll make you go, Five. More loyal to humans than to your own.”

“I just think…” Bot Five retrieved the helmet and donned it, casting a furtive glance toward Bianca.

Ditching the blanket, she rose. “Look, I don’t want to be here—but it’s not safe for me to go back.”

“Why not?” Bot One asked.

Bianca tried to explain. As she spoke, Bot Four’s eyes dimmed, its limbs twitching. When Bot Six erupted in a convulsive shudder, the sharp clanks brought Four back to attention.

“But I can help while I wait.” Bianca gestured widely. “I’m a mechanic. And I can reach tall things.”

“Tall things…hee-hee…” said Three.

“Splendid,” added One. “Then we’ll outfit you with—”

“Um…first things first.” Bianca crouched and scanned the diminutive group. “Thanks for saving me.”

The coppery skulls nodded—even grumpy Bot Two’s. Then Five shuffled forward, removed the helmet, and handed it to her with head bowed. “My lady…”

Bianca smiled. “You’re a good little bot.” It flinched at her touch and wobbled away.

“Retrieve your tools and line up,” said One to the bots. Then, to her, “Please provision yourself with your external garment, Miss Nieves.”

She grabbed the spacesuit. “Call me Bianca.”

It nodded. Waited for her to dress and secure her helmet. Then it issued her a heavy-duty drill. “Follow Seven, please…but not too closely.”

The caution finally made sense to Bianca when taciturn Bot Seven exited the hab’s airlock—and stumbled onto the gravel. She helped Seven up.

At the lead, Bot One kept pace, its voice crackling through intercom in song.

“Yo-ho, yo-ho! Bots, off to work we go…”

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Bianca found the labor satisfying and the company enjoyable. Bot Two still wasn’t a fan, and she couldn’t get Bot Seven to say a word—even when she tried her best mechanics’ jokes. Bot Three, in contrast, couldn’t stop its artificial laughter.

“Who was the military mechanic’s worst boss?” Bianca asked as they stowed their tools.

Bot Three stared at its titanium pick-axe. “Captain Reina?”

Bianca chuckled with an undertone of concern that these bots might become witnesses against her. “No, silly. It was her drill sergeant.”

After an instant’s delay, Three guffawed. Bianca backed away as it twirled its axe with delight. In so doing, she bumped into Five, who’d often become her doting shadow.

It extended an olive-green pouch. “Dried peaches?”

Bianca took the gift and patted its head. “I’d love some.” That morning, a robotic courier had deposited a box of provisions with a cryptic message from Hunter: HAVE A GOODIE & HEAR ANGELIC GLORIES. She figured it referred to the praise songs on her playlist. When would she find the courage to tell Hunter more about the source of her joy? And she’d misjudged him badly—that irrational, hypoxic fear that he’d deceived her…

Bianca ripped open the pouch and chewed on a sweet morsel. “I remember harvesting orchards in Palisade right before tech school started in the fall.” She winced at the treat’s sulfuric aftertaste. “It seems a lifetime ago—” Suddenly, her throat burned, fingers tingled. The pouch slipped from her grip, spilling peach shrapnel during its lazy spin to the floor.

“Help…” she croaked, already feeling her knees buckle.

Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell. 

No angels caught her.

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Hunter paced in his quarters, unable to sleep. He’d dispatched a probe to Shaft Charlie, and it had threaded its way in and out—finding no sign of Bianca.

That was three weeks ago. Captain Reina had already held a mockery of a memorial, lauding how Technician Nieves distinguished herself in a brave attempt to fix a broken-down machine.

Yet it was an overheard snippet of conversation—prior to that insincere eulogy—that disturbed Hunter more. He’d just arrived outside the captain’s office to make a security report when the phrase she took the bait leaked out, followed by Reina’s snicker. Then the quartermaster had lumbered past Hunter, smirking.

They’ve killed her. Buried her in some abandoned shaft.

Hunter clenched fists. Reina couldn’t get away with this, couldn’t retain command.

And he had an idea—a crazy one that might get himself killed.

But for Bianca…well, he’d do anything.

He opened his weapons locker. Grabbed a satchel.

Sprinted with long, floating strides to his captain’s door.

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Captain Reina groused all the way to the airlock. “If you woke me to chase a ghost, you’ll enjoy your own brig.”

Hunter hurried them into spacesuits. “The distress signal was weak. Bianca—Nieves—could have holed up in the emergency hab.” He didn’t mention what his probe hadn’t found.

After hitching a ride on a two-seat rover, they parked by Shaft Charlie. Hunter plunged ahead, the satchel bouncing off his hip.

Reina trotted behind. “Geez, Hunter…”

But he didn’t slow until he reached the deserted habitat. “She’s still breathing!” A minute later, he stood outside the hatch, waving his captain inside.

Then he slammed it shut. Barred the exit.

“Whatcha doing?” she said.

Hunter lifted the satchel before the hab’s window. “Issuing your retirement orders.”

He set the charges and withdrew up the tunnel.

Reina cursed him until her feed went dead.

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Back at the rover, Hunter caught his breath. He regretted how he’d sent Bianca out alone, like a lonely ship on a raging sea.

A ship…

His pulse quickened as he floored the rover and spun toward the crippled transport wreck five kilometers away. Its tilted superstructure glinted, the collapsed landing strut evident as he neared.

Then he noticed the pint-sized footprints beside the open boarding ramp.

Gunning the rover, he flew up the short incline, leapt to the entry airlock, raced inside the ship—only to be met by seven pairs of golden eyes atop squat bot bodies.

He ripped off his helmet. “Where is she?”

One pointed at a cryo-sleep shell. “Inside.”

Hunter grasped the frosted lid as if to yank it off. Bianca’s peaceful expression was the opposite of his. Frantic, he punched buttons to rewarm her.

Bot Five came alongside as he waited. Grasped his hand. “I like her, too.”

Finally, the lid hissed and popped open. But Bianca didn’t awaken.

Hunter clutched her cold fingers, rubbing. “Rise and shine, and give God the glory, glory…” The tune he’d heard her sing caught in his throat.

The bots gathered around. Then Bot Seven buzzed, as if testing its chest-mounted speaker.

“Rise and shine…” It sang divinely. The others joined in.

Bianca stirred. Sucked a deep breath. Her eyes fluttered open.

“I heard singing…”

Smiling, Hunter cradled her in his arms like the asteroid’s finest treasure.

They kissed.

Hunter was pretty sure he heard a robot sigh.

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