September 25, 2025 • 15 mins
In Police Your Planet, Bruce Gordon finds himself at a crossroads as he stares at his ONE WAY ticket, a symbol of his life choices. With a heavy heart, he tears it into thirty pieces, each representing a year of his life filled with regrets and lost opportunities. From his two years as a cop to his struggles in the boxing ring, from fleeting attempts at professional gambling to his explosive rise as a journalist uncovering the Mercury scandals, Bruces journey has been anything but ordinary. But after a shocking revelation about his big scoop, he receives one last assignment that could change everything. Join Bruce as he navigates the complexities of ambition, truth, and the price of exposure. (Summary by Christian Alexander and Excerpt of Chapter 1)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter nine of Police Your Planet by Lester Dalray. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine Contraband
elections were over, but the few dim lights along the
street showed only boarded up in darkened buildings. There were
(00:24):
sounds of stirring, but no one was trusting that the
election day brawls were completely ended. Yet Gordon hesitated, then
swung glumly toward a corner where he could find a
police call box. He heard a tiny patrol car turn
the corner and ducked back into another alley to wait
for it to go by, but they weren't looking for him.
(00:47):
Their spotlight caught a running boy clutching a few thin
copies of The Crusader under a scrawny arm. After the
cops had dumped the unconscious kid and at the back
of the small squad car and gone looking for more game,
Gordon went over to look at the tattered scraps left
of the opposition paper. Randolph wasn't preaching this time, but
(01:11):
was content to report the facts he'd seen. There had
been at least ninety known killings. Mobs had fought citizens
outside the main market for three hours, yet in spite
of all the ballot stuffing and intimidations, Wain had barely
squeaked through by a four percent majority. It was obvious
(01:32):
that the current administration could never win another election. Bruce
Gordon lifted the cradled phone from the box, Gordon reporting,
he announced. A startled grunt came from the instrument, followed
by the clicks of hasty switching. In less than fifteen seconds,
Trench's voice barked out of the phone. Gordon, where the
(01:54):
hell you been up an alley between McCutcheon and Miles.
Gordon told him with a corpse, Murdoch's corpse. Better send
out the wagon. Trench hesitated only a fraction of a second. Okay,
I'll be out in ten minutes. Gordon clumped back to
(02:16):
the alley and bent for a final inspection of Murdoch's body,
to make sure nothing would prove the flaws in his
weekly built story. Isaiah Trench was better than his word.
He swung his gray car up to the alley. In
seven minutes, the door slammed behind him, A beam snapped
out from his flashlight into the alley, and then he
(02:39):
was beside Murdoch's body. He threw the light to Gordon
and stopped to run expert hands over the corpse and
through the pockets. Finally, he stood up, frowning, he's dead,
all right. I don't get it. If you hadn't reported in, Gordon,
did he try to make you think think he was security?
(03:02):
Gordon filled in, yeah, claiming he was head of it
here and wanted me to send a message to Earth
for him. Trench nodded, a touch of relief on his face.
Crazy Gordon grimaced faintly. Crazy Trench repeated, he must have
(03:23):
been to spend that story. By the way, thanks for
killing that sniper. You're a good shot. I'd be dead
if you weren't, I guess. Gordon made no comment, and
Trench said I could start a nasty investigation. I guess,
but I heard him raving too. Give me a hand
and I'll take care of all this. Want me to
(03:46):
drop you off. They wangled the body into the trunk
of the car. Then it was good to relax. While
Trench drove along the rubble piled in nearly deserted streets,
Gordon heard a sigh from beside him. Trench must have
been under tension too. They didn't speak until Trench stopped
(04:08):
in front of Mother Corey's place. Then the captain turned
and stuck out his hand. Congratulations. By the way, I
forgot to tell you, but you won the lottery. You're
a sergeant from now on. Inside A thick effluvium hit
his nose, and Gordon turned to see Mother Corey's huge
balk waddling down the hall. The old man nodded. We
(04:33):
thought you'd gone on the lamb, Cobber, but I guess
since trench brought you back, you've cooled good, good as
a respectable man. Now. I couldn't have stashed you from
the copse, though I might have been tempted, mighty tempted.
His face was melancholy. Tell me lad, did they get
(04:55):
Murdoch Bruce. Gordon nodded, and the old man side Something
suspiciously like a tear glistened in his eyes. I thought
you were taking a bath, Gordon commented. The old man chuckled.
Fates against me, Cobber. With all the shooting, some punk
put a bullet clean through the wall and the plastic
(05:17):
of the tub. Fifty gallons of water all wasted. He
turned back toward the end of the hall, sighing again.
Gordon went up the stairs, noticing that Izzie's door was open.
The little man was stretched out on the bunk in
his clothes, filthy, one side of his face swollen. High guv'nor,
(05:39):
he called out, his voice still cheerful. I had awed
you'd beat the ticket, though the mother and me were
worried there for a while. How'd you grease the fix?
Gordon sketched it in without mentioning security. What happened to you, Izzie?
Prize of being honest, But the geese you paid me
(06:00):
protection didn't get hurt. Governa he winced, then grinned. So
they pay me double tomorrow. Honest he pays gouvna if
you squeeze it once in a while. Funny you making, sergeant.
I thought two other geese won the lottery, so the
promotion had come from trench. It bothered him. When a
(06:25):
turkey sees corn on the menu, it's time to wonder
about Thanksgiving. Collections were good all week, probably as a
result of Izzy's actions. Even after he arranged to pay
his income tax and turned over his donation to the fund,
Gordon was well ahead for the first time since he'd
landed there. He had become almost superstitious about the way,
(06:49):
he was always left with no more than a hundred
credits in his pockets. This time he stripped himself to
that sum at once, depositing the rest in the firsch
mars Port Bank. Maybe it would break the jinks. They
were one of the few teams in the seventh Precinct
to make full quota. Trench was lavish in his praise.
(07:12):
He was playing more than fair with Bruce Gordon now,
but there was a basic suspicion in his eyes. The
next day he drafted Izzie and Gordon for a trip
outside the dome. It's easy enough, and you'll get plenty
of credit and the fund for it. I need two
men who can keep their mouths shut. They ailed around
the station through the morning and the late afternoon. They
(07:35):
left in a big truck capable of hauling what would
have been fifty tons of earth. Trench drove outside the dome.
The electric motor carried them along at a steady twenty
miles an hour, almost silently. It was Gordon's first look
at the Rio Mars. He saw small villages where crop
(07:56):
prospectors and hydroponic farmers lived, with a few small industrial
sections scattered over the desert. As they moved out, he
saw the slow change from the beaten appearance of Marsport
to something that seemed no worse than what would be
found among the sheer croppers back on Earth. It was
(08:16):
obvious that Marsport was the poisoned center here. Some of
the younger children were running around without helmets, confirming Prager's
claim that third generation Martians somehow learned to adapt to
the atmosphere. Darkness fell sharply, as it always did in
Mars thin air, but they went on heading out into
(08:38):
the dunes of the desert. When they finally stopped, they
were beside a small battered spaceship. Boxes were piled all
around it, and others were being tossed out. Trent leaped
from the truck, motioning them to follow, and they began
loading the crates hastily. It took about an hour of
(08:58):
hard work to load the last them, and Trench was
working harder than they were finished. He went up to
one of the men from the ship, handed over an envelope,
and came back to start the truck back toward Marsport.
As the dunes dwindled behind them, Gordon could see the
brief flare of the little rocket taking off. They drove
(09:19):
back through the night as rapidly as the truck could manage. Finally,
they rolled into City Hall, down a ramp and onto
an elevator that took them three levels down. Trench climbed
out and nodded in satisfaction. That's it. Take tomorrow off
if you want, and I'll fix credits for you. But
(09:40):
just remember you haven't seen anything. You don't know any
more than our old friend Murdoch. He led them to
another elevator, then swung back to the truck. Guns, Gordon said, slowly,
Guns and contraband ammunition for the administration from Earth. And
they must have paid half the graft they've taken for that.
(10:04):
What the hell do they want it for? Izzie jerked
a shoulder upwards and a twist ran across his pock
marked face. War What else guv'nor Earth must be boiling
about the election? Maybe securities getting set to spring. The
idea of Marsport rebelling against Earth seemed ridiculous. Even with guns,
(10:28):
they wouldn't have a chance of Earth sent a force
of any strength to back Security, but it was the
only explanation Gordon took the next day off to look
for Sheila Cory, but nobody would admit having seen her.
He had seen crowds beginning to assemble all afternoon, but
had paid no attention to them. Now he found the
(10:51):
way back to Quary's blocked by a mob. Then he
saw that the object of it all was the First
Marsport Bank. It was only towards that that the shaking
fist were raised. Gordon managed to get onto a pile
of rubble where he could see over the crowd. The
doors of the bank were locked shut, but men were
attacking it with an improvised battering ram. As he watched,
(11:15):
a pompous little man came to the upper window over
the door and began motioning for attention. The crowd quieted
almost at once, except for a single yell, when do
we get our money? Please? Please? The voice reached back
thinly as the bank president got his silence. Please. It
(11:35):
won't do you any good, not a bit. We're broke,
not a cent left, and don't go blaming me. I
didn't start the rush. Your friends did that. They took
all the money and now we're cleaned out. You can't.
A rope rose from the crowd and settled around him.
(11:56):
In a second, he was pulled down and the crowd
searched for Gordon dropped from the rubble, staring at the bank.
He'd played it safe this time, he'd put his money
away to make sure he'd have it. A heavy hand
fell on his shoulder and he turned to see mother, Corey.
That's the way a panic is, Cobber, the man said,
(12:20):
there's a run, then everything is ruined. I tried to
get you when I first heard the rumor, but you
were gone. And when this starts, a man has to
get there first. He patted his side, where a bald showed,
and I just made it too. The mob was beginning
to break up now, but it was still in an
(12:40):
ugly mood. But what started it? Rumors that Mayor Wayne
got a big loan from the bank, and why not,
Seeing it was his bank, nobody had to guess that
he'd never pay it back. So Gordon found Izzie organizing
the bouncers from the joints and some of the citizens
into a squad. Every joint was closed down tightly. Already
(13:04):
Gordon began organizing his own squad. Izzie slipped over as
he began to get them organized. If we hold past midnight,
we'll be set, Governor, he said, they go crazy for
a while, but give them a few hours and they'll
stop most of it. I figure you know where all
the scratch went. Sure, guns from earth the damned fools,
(13:30):
yea have. But not fools, just bloody well informed Governor.
Erth's sending a fleet. God official word of it. No
way of telling how big, but it's coming. It gave
Gordon something to think about while they patrolled the beat,
but he had had enough for a time Without that.
The mops left the section alone, apparently scared off by
(13:53):
the organized group ready and waiting for them. But every
street and alley had to be kept under constant surveillance
to out the angry, desperate men who were trying to
get something to hang on to before everything collapsed. He
saw stores being broken into beyond his beat, and brawls
as one drunken, crazed crowd met another, but he kept
(14:15):
to his own territory, knowing that there was nothing he
could do beyond it. By midnight, as Izzie had promised,
the people had begun to quiet down. However, the anger
and hysteria were giving way to a sullen, beaten, hopelessness, honest.
Izzie finally seemed satisfied to turn things over to the
regular nightmen. Gordon waited around a while longer, but finally
(14:40):
headed back to Mother Corey's place. Mother Corey put a
cup of steaming coffee into his hands. You look worse
than I do, Cobber, worse than even that granddaughter of mine.
She was looking for you, Sheila. Gordon jerked the word out. Yes,
he left a note for you. I put it up
(15:02):
in your room. Mother Corey chuckled, why don't you two
get married and make your fighting legal? Thanks for the
coffee Gordon threw back at him. He was already mounting
the stairs. He tossed his door open and found the
letter on his bed. I'd rather go to Wayne, it said,
(15:24):
but I need money. If you want the rest of this,
you've got until three to night to make an offer.
If you can find me, maybe I'll listen. The torn
off front cover of the note book accompanied the letter.
But it was a quarter after three already. He was
practically broke, and he had no idea where she could
(15:47):
be found. End of Chapter nine
Chapter nine of Police Your Planet by Lester Dalray. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine Contraband
elections were over, but the few dim lights along the
street showed only boarded up in darkened buildings. There were
(00:24):
sounds of stirring, but no one was trusting that the
election day brawls were completely ended. Yet Gordon hesitated, then
swung glumly toward a corner where he could find a
police call box. He heard a tiny patrol car turn
the corner and ducked back into another alley to wait
for it to go by, but they weren't looking for him.
(00:47):
Their spotlight caught a running boy clutching a few thin
copies of The Crusader under a scrawny arm. After the
cops had dumped the unconscious kid and at the back
of the small squad car and gone looking for more game,
Gordon went over to look at the tattered scraps left
of the opposition paper. Randolph wasn't preaching this time, but
(01:11):
was content to report the facts he'd seen. There had
been at least ninety known killings. Mobs had fought citizens
outside the main market for three hours, yet in spite
of all the ballot stuffing and intimidations, Wain had barely
squeaked through by a four percent majority. It was obvious
(01:32):
that the current administration could never win another election. Bruce
Gordon lifted the cradled phone from the box, Gordon reporting,
he announced. A startled grunt came from the instrument, followed
by the clicks of hasty switching. In less than fifteen seconds,
Trench's voice barked out of the phone. Gordon, where the
(01:54):
hell you been up an alley between McCutcheon and Miles.
Gordon told him with a corpse, Murdoch's corpse. Better send
out the wagon. Trench hesitated only a fraction of a second. Okay,
I'll be out in ten minutes. Gordon clumped back to
(02:16):
the alley and bent for a final inspection of Murdoch's body,
to make sure nothing would prove the flaws in his
weekly built story. Isaiah Trench was better than his word.
He swung his gray car up to the alley. In
seven minutes, the door slammed behind him, A beam snapped
out from his flashlight into the alley, and then he
(02:39):
was beside Murdoch's body. He threw the light to Gordon
and stopped to run expert hands over the corpse and
through the pockets. Finally, he stood up, frowning, he's dead,
all right. I don't get it. If you hadn't reported in, Gordon,
did he try to make you think think he was security?
(03:02):
Gordon filled in, yeah, claiming he was head of it
here and wanted me to send a message to Earth
for him. Trench nodded, a touch of relief on his face.
Crazy Gordon grimaced faintly. Crazy Trench repeated, he must have
(03:23):
been to spend that story. By the way, thanks for
killing that sniper. You're a good shot. I'd be dead
if you weren't, I guess. Gordon made no comment, and
Trench said I could start a nasty investigation. I guess,
but I heard him raving too. Give me a hand
and I'll take care of all this. Want me to
(03:46):
drop you off. They wangled the body into the trunk
of the car. Then it was good to relax. While
Trench drove along the rubble piled in nearly deserted streets,
Gordon heard a sigh from beside him. Trench must have
been under tension too. They didn't speak until Trench stopped
(04:08):
in front of Mother Corey's place. Then the captain turned
and stuck out his hand. Congratulations. By the way, I
forgot to tell you, but you won the lottery. You're
a sergeant from now on. Inside A thick effluvium hit
his nose, and Gordon turned to see Mother Corey's huge
balk waddling down the hall. The old man nodded. We
(04:33):
thought you'd gone on the lamb, Cobber, but I guess
since trench brought you back, you've cooled good, good as
a respectable man. Now. I couldn't have stashed you from
the copse, though I might have been tempted, mighty tempted.
His face was melancholy. Tell me lad, did they get
(04:55):
Murdoch Bruce. Gordon nodded, and the old man side Something
suspiciously like a tear glistened in his eyes. I thought
you were taking a bath, Gordon commented. The old man chuckled.
Fates against me, Cobber. With all the shooting, some punk
put a bullet clean through the wall and the plastic
(05:17):
of the tub. Fifty gallons of water all wasted. He
turned back toward the end of the hall, sighing again.
Gordon went up the stairs, noticing that Izzie's door was open.
The little man was stretched out on the bunk in
his clothes, filthy, one side of his face swollen. High guv'nor,
(05:39):
he called out, his voice still cheerful. I had awed
you'd beat the ticket, though the mother and me were
worried there for a while. How'd you grease the fix?
Gordon sketched it in without mentioning security. What happened to you, Izzie?
Prize of being honest, But the geese you paid me
(06:00):
protection didn't get hurt. Governa he winced, then grinned. So
they pay me double tomorrow. Honest he pays gouvna if
you squeeze it once in a while. Funny you making, sergeant.
I thought two other geese won the lottery, so the
promotion had come from trench. It bothered him. When a
(06:25):
turkey sees corn on the menu, it's time to wonder
about Thanksgiving. Collections were good all week, probably as a
result of Izzy's actions. Even after he arranged to pay
his income tax and turned over his donation to the fund,
Gordon was well ahead for the first time since he'd
landed there. He had become almost superstitious about the way,
(06:49):
he was always left with no more than a hundred
credits in his pockets. This time he stripped himself to
that sum at once, depositing the rest in the firsch
mars Port Bank. Maybe it would break the jinks. They
were one of the few teams in the seventh Precinct
to make full quota. Trench was lavish in his praise.
(07:12):
He was playing more than fair with Bruce Gordon now,
but there was a basic suspicion in his eyes. The
next day he drafted Izzie and Gordon for a trip
outside the dome. It's easy enough, and you'll get plenty
of credit and the fund for it. I need two
men who can keep their mouths shut. They ailed around
the station through the morning and the late afternoon. They
(07:35):
left in a big truck capable of hauling what would
have been fifty tons of earth. Trench drove outside the dome.
The electric motor carried them along at a steady twenty
miles an hour, almost silently. It was Gordon's first look
at the Rio Mars. He saw small villages where crop
(07:56):
prospectors and hydroponic farmers lived, with a few small industrial
sections scattered over the desert. As they moved out, he
saw the slow change from the beaten appearance of Marsport
to something that seemed no worse than what would be
found among the sheer croppers back on Earth. It was
(08:16):
obvious that Marsport was the poisoned center here. Some of
the younger children were running around without helmets, confirming Prager's
claim that third generation Martians somehow learned to adapt to
the atmosphere. Darkness fell sharply, as it always did in
Mars thin air, but they went on heading out into
(08:38):
the dunes of the desert. When they finally stopped, they
were beside a small battered spaceship. Boxes were piled all
around it, and others were being tossed out. Trent leaped
from the truck, motioning them to follow, and they began
loading the crates hastily. It took about an hour of
(08:58):
hard work to load the last them, and Trench was
working harder than they were finished. He went up to
one of the men from the ship, handed over an envelope,
and came back to start the truck back toward Marsport.
As the dunes dwindled behind them, Gordon could see the
brief flare of the little rocket taking off. They drove
(09:19):
back through the night as rapidly as the truck could manage. Finally,
they rolled into City Hall, down a ramp and onto
an elevator that took them three levels down. Trench climbed
out and nodded in satisfaction. That's it. Take tomorrow off
if you want, and I'll fix credits for you. But
(09:40):
just remember you haven't seen anything. You don't know any
more than our old friend Murdoch. He led them to
another elevator, then swung back to the truck. Guns, Gordon said, slowly,
Guns and contraband ammunition for the administration from Earth. And
they must have paid half the graft they've taken for that.
(10:04):
What the hell do they want it for? Izzie jerked
a shoulder upwards and a twist ran across his pock
marked face. War What else guv'nor Earth must be boiling
about the election? Maybe securities getting set to spring. The
idea of Marsport rebelling against Earth seemed ridiculous. Even with guns,
(10:28):
they wouldn't have a chance of Earth sent a force
of any strength to back Security, but it was the
only explanation Gordon took the next day off to look
for Sheila Cory, but nobody would admit having seen her.
He had seen crowds beginning to assemble all afternoon, but
had paid no attention to them. Now he found the
(10:51):
way back to Quary's blocked by a mob. Then he
saw that the object of it all was the First
Marsport Bank. It was only towards that that the shaking
fist were raised. Gordon managed to get onto a pile
of rubble where he could see over the crowd. The
doors of the bank were locked shut, but men were
attacking it with an improvised battering ram. As he watched,
(11:15):
a pompous little man came to the upper window over
the door and began motioning for attention. The crowd quieted
almost at once, except for a single yell, when do
we get our money? Please? Please? The voice reached back
thinly as the bank president got his silence. Please. It
(11:35):
won't do you any good, not a bit. We're broke,
not a cent left, and don't go blaming me. I
didn't start the rush. Your friends did that. They took
all the money and now we're cleaned out. You can't.
A rope rose from the crowd and settled around him.
(11:56):
In a second, he was pulled down and the crowd
searched for Gordon dropped from the rubble, staring at the bank.
He'd played it safe this time, he'd put his money
away to make sure he'd have it. A heavy hand
fell on his shoulder and he turned to see mother, Corey.
That's the way a panic is, Cobber, the man said,
(12:20):
there's a run, then everything is ruined. I tried to
get you when I first heard the rumor, but you
were gone. And when this starts, a man has to
get there first. He patted his side, where a bald showed,
and I just made it too. The mob was beginning
to break up now, but it was still in an
(12:40):
ugly mood. But what started it? Rumors that Mayor Wayne
got a big loan from the bank, and why not,
Seeing it was his bank, nobody had to guess that
he'd never pay it back. So Gordon found Izzie organizing
the bouncers from the joints and some of the citizens
into a squad. Every joint was closed down tightly. Already
(13:04):
Gordon began organizing his own squad. Izzie slipped over as
he began to get them organized. If we hold past midnight,
we'll be set, Governor, he said, they go crazy for
a while, but give them a few hours and they'll
stop most of it. I figure you know where all
the scratch went. Sure, guns from earth the damned fools,
(13:30):
yea have. But not fools, just bloody well informed Governor.
Erth's sending a fleet. God official word of it. No
way of telling how big, but it's coming. It gave
Gordon something to think about while they patrolled the beat,
but he had had enough for a time Without that.
The mops left the section alone, apparently scared off by
(13:53):
the organized group ready and waiting for them. But every
street and alley had to be kept under constant surveillance
to out the angry, desperate men who were trying to
get something to hang on to before everything collapsed. He
saw stores being broken into beyond his beat, and brawls
as one drunken, crazed crowd met another, but he kept
(14:15):
to his own territory, knowing that there was nothing he
could do beyond it. By midnight, as Izzie had promised,
the people had begun to quiet down. However, the anger
and hysteria were giving way to a sullen, beaten, hopelessness, honest.
Izzie finally seemed satisfied to turn things over to the
regular nightmen. Gordon waited around a while longer, but finally
(14:40):
headed back to Mother Corey's place. Mother Corey put a
cup of steaming coffee into his hands. You look worse
than I do, Cobber, worse than even that granddaughter of mine.
She was looking for you, Sheila. Gordon jerked the word out. Yes,
he left a note for you. I put it up
(15:02):
in your room. Mother Corey chuckled, why don't you two
get married and make your fighting legal? Thanks for the
coffee Gordon threw back at him. He was already mounting
the stairs. He tossed his door open and found the
letter on his bed. I'd rather go to Wayne, it said,
(15:24):
but I need money. If you want the rest of this,
you've got until three to night to make an offer.
If you can find me, maybe I'll listen. The torn
off front cover of the note book accompanied the letter.
But it was a quarter after three already. He was
practically broke, and he had no idea where she could
(15:47):
be found. End of Chapter nine
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