"Who was that?" Craig asked.
"Customs. Bet you never got such a smooth screening before, eh?"
"You mean he screened me? What for?"
"Hard to say," the other passenger said. "You'll get used to this. They get it over with quick."
Craig made his way toward the spaceport administration building. His first physical contact with Terra had passed unnoticed.
"Sir! Sir!" cried a voice behind him.
He wheeled to see a man walking briskly toward him.
"You dropped this, sir. Quite by accident, of course."
Craig examined the small object the man had given him before rushing off toward an exit.
It was an empty PON tube he had just discarded. He couldn't understand why the man had bothered until he realized that the plastaloid floor of the lobby displayed not the faintest scrap of paper nor trace of dirt.