Starbright and The 7 Droids (A Space Opera Based Upon Snow White)– Part One

Once upon a time, in a distant corner of the universe, there lived a young woman named Princess Starbright. When her mother died of spacesickness, her father remarried but her Stepmother was an evil Tyrant who killed her father and, because Starbright was the only other heir to the Galactic Imperial throne, longed to kill her as well so, paying a bounty hunter, she ordered him to take Starbright into Space, kill her and bring back her heart as proof that he had killed her but the Bounty Hunter took pity upon Starbright….

“Computer”, said Queen Galaxina looking at the large mirror like computer screen on the wall of her private quarters, “Have you finished running DNA tests on that heart that the Bounty Hunter brought back? Is it truly Princess Starbright’s heart?”.

“Negative, your Majesty”, said the computer, “DNA tests indicate that the heart is a synthetic replica of a human heart”.

“Then the Bounty Hunter lied to me”, said Queen Galaxina, her eyes blazing with anger, “Well, I’ll deal with him later but what of Starbright? If she is not dead then where is she?”.

“My Spy satellites spotted the Hunters ship going to the tiny moon of Faeria. She is on that moon. 7 Mining droids who live in a dome there have given her refuge”, said the Computer.

“Oh they have, have they?”, said the Queen, touching the ring upon her finger and shape shifting into an old woman, “Well we’ll see about that. Prepare the teleporter. I am going to pay Princess Starbright a little visit”.

“That’s right”, said Starbright to Droids number 6 and 7, giggling as she saw them trying to lay the table for dinner, “First you put the plates on the table, then you put the knife and fork on either side”.

The two robots bleeped and beeped in reply while, onto the seven plates they had laid out, Starbright served up a Robot stew of screws and nuts and bolts cooked in axle grease.

“I’m not really sure what Robots eat”, she said, “But I hope you like it”.

Droid Number 5 ate a spoonful of Robot stew and beeped and bleeped appreciatively before adding, “Yum – Yum”.

There was a beeping of a different kind, from the door and, putting down her pot and ladle, Starbright went to answer.

“Hello”, she asked as the door of the dwelling slid upwards and she saw an old woman outside with a basket of spacefruit hung upon her arm.

“Good day, my dear”, said the woman, “I’m selling Spacefruit. Would you like to buy one? They’re so sweet and delicious”.

Starbrights mouth watered.

“Mmm”, said Starbright smiling, “I wouldn’t mind some spacefruit. I’ve had nothing to eat since I arrived here apart from protein capsules and powdered food”.

Reaching into one of the pockets of her Space gown, Starbright took out a gold Star Sovereign and handed it to the old woman before taking one of the spacefruits from her basket and biting into it.

Suddenly, Starbright felt something was wrong. She could feel a strange cold sensation creeping over her, spreading from her head to her toes, a kind of numbness.

“I feel strangely ill for some reason”, she said, clutching her head with her right hand, her face becoming distressed and her eyes worried, “Faint and dizzy”.

“Ha! Ha!”, crowed the old woman morphing back into the form of Queen Galaxina, “That’s because the Spacefruit I gave you is poisoned; poisoned with the most deadly Nano-poison in the whole Galaxy, tiny robots that at this very moment are spreading inside of you and will turn you in metal”.

“Oh no”, said Starbright falling to the floor, “No”.

Lauging again, the queen was suddenly engulfed in a glowing teleporter beam and then, as the beam dissipated, vanished into thin air.

Seeing what had happened, sadly, the 7 Droids gathered round about the fallen body of the Star Princess and, lifting her up in their robotic arms, carried her to the room where they kept their cryogenic sleep chamber.

“Bleep-beep-beep-bleep”, said Droid Number 7 turning to the others as they lowered Starbright into the chamber, which meant, in his strange robotic language, “This will keep the Princess alive at least until we can cure her”.