30

It swam back and forth erratically... confused, tormented, tantalized.  It could see very little in the foul and weed-clotted shallow water; its brain registered a cascade of sounds and impulses, but none was discernible, none appeared to hold promise.

Some of the impulses were threatening, and although it did not know fear, it had been programmed to preserve itself and thus to defend itself, so signals of threat triggered reflexive alarms.  And yet none of the threats materialized.

Its store of energy was nearly exhausted; it had eaten nothing since the fat, sleek thing that had wandered close in the deep.

It had searched near the shores and far from them, over sandy bottoms and among clusters of big rocks.  Living things that had once patrolled the shallows were gone, or hidden.  None of the vulnerable things, the easy prey, had appeared above; none of the clumsy things had entered the water from the shore.

It had noticed changes in temperature and turbulence, but could not connect them with the lack of food.

Now, suddenly, it knew there was food nearby, but it could not find it.  The water seemed permeated with the fragrance of flesh, but there was no flesh to be found.

Slowly, carefully, it thrust itself upward and let its head break through the glassy film of the surface.

Its olfactories were assaulted by aromas that tripped a flood of gastric juices in its belly.

Its eyes, once their lenses cleared, saw living things... not just one, but a host of living things, all gathered in a herd, all taunting it with their smells.  Adrenaline pumped renewed energy through its veins.

But then its alarms took control, warning it that the living things were too many, and too far from the safety of its world.  It could not feed on them and survive.

Except for two... smaller ones, apart from the rest, alone at the border between the worlds.

But to take even those two would require a complex decision, a decision it had been programmed to make but never had, a decision that could end its life instead of preserving it.

Conflict tore at the creature's primitive brain and incomplete conditioning.  Survival had two paths, which warred with each other.

And so it swam back and forth erratically, and the urgency within its body grew into frenzy.