Breaking Down

It happens to all of us ... our ride breaks down and we have to pull over and fix the damn thing. It even happens to astronauts, although in the case of spacecraft it does at least mean that the passengers cannot be terrorised by the owner into getting out and pushing.

The astronaut had landed his crippled craft on an alien surface filled with all the terrors of the unknown (and the slightly less scary terrors previously encountered). Luckily, this hero has no problems, as the locals are mostly harmless, and anyway the Space Exploration Corporation has strict policies about getting eaten on remote planets. One of the locals, however, decides to make contact.