She frowned down at me, her eyebrows knitted with worry. Henry, on the other hand, had already pushed his way under the rope and was thundering down the slope after me.

Red dust settled in a cloud around me as I crouched at the base of the pile of stones. It was only about waist high, but otherwise it looked exactly like the design on the coin. I supposed it could be a coincidence, but that would be too weird.

“What’s so great about this thing, man?” Henry asked. “It’s just a pile of rocks.”

“Yeah, but the way they’re shaped…” I reached out impulsively to touch the arch.

When my fingers brushed the rock, a deafening klaxon shrieked.

Henry cursed at the sound. I cringed, my head jerking up. I hadn’t noticed the security drone hovering at the perimeter of the crater, but its camera was focused on us now, the red light on top of its body flashing.

In moments, our group was back at the side of the crater. Erick silenced the security drone, and in the stillness that followed, Mr. Johnson’s voice echoed.

“Contreras and Sandhu. Why am I not surprised?”

◦ • ◦

After ensuring that I hadn’t caused any damage to the site with my “reckless behavior,” Mr. Johnson had hauled the three of us back to the bus while Erick got the rest of our classmates back on their regularly scheduled field trip. As we lowered ourselves into the front row of benches, I glanced over at Tamara and felt a twinge of remorse. Her normally tanned face was white as a sheet. Henry and I were more used to getting in trouble, but Tamara had always managed to keep her nose clean. I hadn’t meant to drag her into this as well.

“All right,” said Mr. Johnson, leaning against the bus’ emergency manual drive console and looking the three of us over, his arms crossed. “What was it this time, Sandhu? Now even scientific studies are a tool of Earth-based imperialism? Kind of a stretch, don’t you think?”

Henry was aghast. “What makes you think this was my idea? I’m innocent!”

“Right. Like I’m going to fall for that.”

“He’s telling the truth,” I broke in. “He really didn’t have anything to do with it this time. It was my fault.”

Mr. Johnson gaped at me, then began to massage the bridge of his nose in exasperation. “Really, Isaak? Being Henry’s accomplice wasn’t good enough for you? Now you have to commit the crimes yourself?”

“I wasn’t going to do anything to it!” I protested. “I just wanted to get a better look at it!”

My teacher sighed. “Isaak, I don’t know what to do about you. In a single annum, you went from being one of the best students at the Academy to having a C-average and being in the principal’s office every other week. What happened?”