 Why does Ben leave Laura?
And yet, at the same time, to be filled with a terrible, gnawing fear—a fear locked in my mind during the day and bursting out like an evil jack-in-the-box at night. The Academy, with its great halls and classrooms and laboratories, lay hollow and silent, an exhausted thing at sleep after spawning its first-born. For it was June in this year of 1995, and we were the graduating class of the U. S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight. They're going to bring us the metals and minerals that we desperately need. Let him leave Jupiter and the others alone! My parents had died in a strato-jet crash when I was four, so I hadn't needed many of those "You are cordially invited" cards. Just one, which I'd sent to Charlie Taggart. He was Chief Jetman now on the Lunar Lady , a commercial ore ship on a shuttle between Luna City and White Sands. I remembered how, as a kid, I'd pestered him in the Long Island Spaceport, tagging after him like a puppy, and how he'd grown to like me until he became father, mother, and buddy all in one to me. The Universe was mighty big, but with two of us to face it together, it would be only half as big. And you, Laura, were with him. Charlie gulped helplessly, and Mickey said: "Still going to spend the weekend with us, aren't you, Ben?"
 Ben leaves Laura because the call to explore the universe is irresistible.
 Ben leaves Laura because he feels guilty that he dragged Charlie to Mickey and Laura's parents.  Ben leaves Laura because she wants kids, and he doesn't.  Ben leaves Laura because the call to explore the universe is irresistible.  Ben leaves Laura because he knows he'll grow to resent her if he stays.