"All right." Stern rose from his chair, placed his left hand horizontally above his head, his right vertically against his stomach, and started reciting the nonsense words. Each time he came to _baker man_, he changed the rotational direction of one or both hands. Then he reversed the placement of the hands themselves. Unsmiling, after about a dozen changes, he said: "Now you try it, Crawford. No, I'm not kidding around. Every time I reach _baker_ there'll be a change. If I say _left baker man_ only your left will reverse its rotation. Or I may say _right baker man_. Or I may not indicate a hand and then you'll reverse rotation for both. Then when I say _change baker man_, put the right hand where the left is and vice versa and continue the same rotation as before the command--that is, if the right hand was above your head, going clockwise, when I say _change_, your left hand, as soon as it's shifted above your head, will turn clockwise." Crawford hesitantly got up, crowding the little cabin until Stern sat down. He held his hands just as Stern had at the start of the exercise. "Makes me feel a little silly," he grinned, rolling his eyes upward to the raised hand. "Maybe it is in itself--but not in its implications. Okay, _Patty cake, patty cake, baker man_. And now _Patty cake, patty cake, left baker man_. And _Patty cake, patty cake, change baker man!_" As the last instruction was given, Crawford, hopelessly tangled, flailed his arms about. "Can't keep them turning in the right direction!" Annoyed with himself, he stopped altogether. "Let's start again. I'll get it yet." "No, I think the point's been made. After a while you might learn to do it right but it would take practice." "A matter of coordination, isn't it?" Stern nodded. "Then those hand-wrigglings of the Nodarians were actually purposeful exercises." "Right. And now that they've mastered really complex maneuvers, the hand-wrigglings are probably games, too, a part of play." "Why should they have bothered at all with something like that?" "Because it's one tiny part of a much wider set of disciplines. They have made themselves _totally_ ambidextrous, not a trace of left- or right-handedness left. Not just physical exercise and disciplines, though, _all_ processes dealing with attention are involved." Crawford's eyes widened. "That would mean both halves of the brain are _equally_ used! They might be able to do twice the thinking we do." "No, my friend, the difference is much greater because it has gone far beyond questions of handedness. Just tell the Commander what I've told you. And say the change probably extends to the very nature of consciousness itself but I'll need the best projector to prove that." Crawford bewilderedly considered his two hands. "Complete control--can you beat that! The Commander'll have to listen all right." * * * * *