by Nathan Archer

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller were putting together an anthology about the guys who work at spaceports -- not the dashing ship captains or wealthy passengers, but the ordinary working-class folks who keep the place running, and also the parasites and hangers-on you'd find in such a place.

I thought that sounded pretty cool, but at the time I was trying to reserve the Watt-Evans name for fantasy (I wasn't writing any horror) and credit Nathan Archer with all my science fiction, so when I did write "Contraband," I used the Archer name. Steve and Sharon didn't mind.

The story itself is pretty much what it says on the box -- a customs official hoping for a fat bribe discovers that the goods being smuggled aren't quite the usual.

Low Port was published by Meisha Merlin in September 2003. The story has not been reprinted.

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