Through Crowded Skies

Aileron was a 22 year old straight out of college when his life took a turn for the worst. Not only did the part of the research vessel he was interning for get severed from the main body with him still inside, he ended up stranded in a strange yet fantastical world made up entirely of only floating islands. With only the human crew module he came in and any resources he arrived with as well as an AI assistant to manage what's left of his ship, can he manage to overcome his fears, meander the intensely prejudiced political landscape of the world's many sapient inhabitants, and eventually find a way to escape the mystical planet of impossible physics that seems to be holding him in? [Participant in the April 2026 Royal Road Writathon challenge]