Castaway

Publication(s)

"Castaway is about birds and spaceships. It's a story not many people like, although those who like it seem to like it a lot."

A space-faring man is haunted by the story about a woman told to him by an old survivor from a spaceship crash.

The "dead world nobody ever goes to" where the castaway was found is Earth. We know this because the air is very breathable and the world year is a near-perfect match to a standard year. However, the fact that the standard year has been lengthened by half an hour suggests that the space-farer's time has become completely dissociated from concepts like Earth's rotation and orbit. It was probably changed for some bureaucratic accounting reason.
The sun has apparently become a red giant, since it was "red and real close, but there didn't seem to be a lot of heat in it." This is somewhat like the red sun of Urth, though that was artificially created by implanting a black hole.
The woman is Gaia, spirit of the living Earth. She is dying because of human neglect. They cast her away.
Man has traveled at least to the galactic rim. They have abandoned other settled plants, including the castaway's own home world. "We're not there anymore, I told him."
The narrator has no concept of trees or birds. His world is colorless and utilitarian.
"Atrothers" is close in pronunciation to a French phrase: "Se l'accrocher", to have to do without something. Possibly the enemy was a French colony.