The disc spun unevenly, its typical hum had a peculiar warble to it due to the ramshackle nature of its current operation. The Castaway had, at best, a rudimentary level understanding of Orbital Disc Flier engineering and operating, and thus his repairs could only possibly hold for as long as it stays in the air. There was something in the atmosphere around Kaffe-7 that just attracted people to it, literally, ships were sucked into the cliffs like moths to a flame. The Castaway was lucky to have survived the crash, very lucky that the atmosphere of Kaffe-7 was habitable, and incredibly lucky that this particular ship was less damaged than the others. The only trouble now was getting it out of the planet’s atmosphere and back to his home planet.
The lights in the ship blinked red in an infrequent pattern as the twice-salvaged power cower struggled to divide its remaining energy evenly, the silver metal floors and walls shook violently as the disc pushed itself through the heavy clouds in the sky. The Castaway looked up at the screens, watching in excitement as the clouds parted to reveal the open sky ahead of them, the edge of the atmosphere swiftly approaching… only for the Castaway to suddenly hear a heavy groaning sound from the walls around them. The Castaway fell to their knees, they could feel the ship falling and could see the clouds rushing past him on the screen. They could see the walls around them coming closer, all creaking to encase them in a small silver prison.
Some day the universe may discover the truth of the cliffs of Kaffe-7, but until then, that natural magnet deposit will remain the death of many space travelers.
The Oubliette 