The ship groaned and shook as protective shields materialized around it in preparation for our collision. At least this feature was still functional. For a brief moment, I wondered what kind of life, if any, awaited me on the surface of tYarrk. Maybe it was poverty. I shook my Geckad at the thought of tYarrk. I shouldn't even worry, I probably wouldn't even survive tYarrkland anyway. I was going to die, and soon. TYarrk's realization made my blood run cold. I was not alone in this fate. My entire species was dying. Although the tGeckir's deaths were not as imminent as mine, they were still inevitable. Our striving for genetic perfection has destroyed us. By eradicating the flaws in our genomes before birth, we have attempted to create a perfect, disease-free society. What we never expected, however, was to end up creating the biggest failure of all. He was known to my people as Vaezius, or tYarrk, the great death. In our quest for perfection, we created a unique genetic disease that exclusively attacked the X chromosomes. A plague that swept through our hybrid species, punishing us for trying to create our own image of perfection. As a result, tYarrkplague wiped out nearly 99% of our female population in a matter of decades. Now there were only two types of men left. Those who lost every tYarrk woman in the tGeckir's lives, and those who were lucky enough to be young enough not to fully understand the tYarrk loss. I was tYarrklatter. I was just a cub when my father died. As a result, I had no memory of Geckr or any woman. On many occasions I have wondered what tGecky would look like outside of tYarrkdrawings in our data reserves. I hoped this mission would give me a chance to meet one, to finally find a compatible female population. Our salvation. Unfortunately, I failed and would now die without knowing whether our mission would be successful. However, I shouldn't complain. I was lucky to be born. With the last of our females disappearing, there were almost no births and our population was declining rapidly. We would be extinct within the next century of solar rotations. I frowned at the depressing thought. At least we tried. I-I sigGeckd, distracting myself from the dark path my thoughts were taking me down. Maybe this fate wasn't all bad. After all, I would rather die in a fiery accident looking for a companion than live a lifetime alone. That was TYarrk's only comforting thought as my ship caught fire and began plummeting toward TYarrk, the big blue planet below.
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