Jeff Sutton

“ At the exact ten-thousandths of a second he concentrated five billion thought units. Winds rushed into the spot where the bomb had stood, and for a long moment the forests trembled. (At the base of the batholith several of the strange man-forms chattered excitedly: the concept of a god was born.)
Ixmal gloatingly followed "Star-Blaster's" course. He saw it hurtle past the moon, watched while for a split second it formed one apex of an equilateral triangle with Mars and earth, reveled as it drove through the belt of asteroids. Ha, the alien was doomed. ”

“ Psychband observed.
"And Man is dust," Ixmal reminded. "Besides, I could destroy the very mountain with thought alone. Who dares give challenge?"
Ixmal discovered that Zale-3 had solved his fissionable problem: he was using psychokinesis to haul ore from Jupiter's methane deeps. A startling thought struck him: Zale-3 wouldn't need a rocket carrier. Of course, he would power his warhead by mental force. Why hadn't he thought of that? The ages wasted when every second might prove vital. ”

“ Mars was flat, worn, a waterless waste of fine red dust—an old, old planet where the forces of gradation had reached near balance. Ixmal gridded the red planet into a system of squares and ingeniously enclosed the polar areas with interlocking triangles, then opened his search. (A new system allowed him to focus his remote receptors in the center of each grid, expanding the focal point to cover the entire area. By this method he would be able to complete the task in just under five hundred earth years.) ”

“ Ixmal stated coldly, withdrawing his receptors. He probed Psychband, somewhat disturbed to learn that Zale-3 would regard his pronouncement as a challenge.
"Destroy him," Psychband urged. "Remember the ancient weapons?"
"Yes, he must be destroyed." Ixmal ceased every activity to concentrate on the other's destruction. First he would have to locate his lair, study his habits, assess his weaknesses. And, yes, his strengths, for the alien was no harmless bit of protoplasm like Man. He must, in fact, be a creature somewhat like himself. Another god. ”

“ Ixmal hurriedly flashed a panic call to Psychband.
"Psychokinesis—Zale-3 has learned to move matter by mind," Psychband pronounced.
"But how?"
Psychband gave an electro-magnetic rumble, the equivalent of a shrug. "Out of my field," he said. "No prior indoctrination."
Ixmal sensed a momentary fright. The alien could move matter just as Man had moved matter. The factor of controlled mobility ... directed mobility. Clearly Zale-3 was no ordinary god. He'd have to speed his efforts. Time was running out. Already the earth pattern had changed since his first contact with the alien. ”

“ In somewhat over half a million years he was able to sway flowers, move leaves against the wind, make small shrubs tremble. In less than half that time again he felled a huge tree and wrested ores from the earth. (An age of vulcanism had come and gone; the Atlantic coast was an igneous shelf, reptiles towered above the earth.) ”