 What finally helped Ben make his final decision?
How can I tell you what it's like to be young and a man and to dream of reaching the stars? 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. Perhaps if I start at the beginning, the very beginning.... The Academy, with its great halls and classrooms and laboratories, lay hollow and silent, an exhausted thing at sleep after spawning its first-born. They're going to bring us the metals and minerals that we desperately need. They're going to find new land for our colonists, good rich land that will bear food and be a home for our children. And perhaps most important of all, they'll make other men think of the stars and look up at them and feel humility—for mankind needs humility." Let him leave Jupiter and the others alone! Mickey Cameron, sitting next to me, dug an elbow into my ribs. Just one, which I'd sent to Charlie Taggart. He was a veteran of Everson's first trip to the Moon nearly twenty-five years ago, and he was still at it. 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. Though it was daytime, I saw the stars in my mind's vision, the great shining balls of silver, each like a voice crying out and pleading to be explored, to be touched by the sons of Earth. They expect us to make a new kind of civilization and a better place out of Earth. "You made it, boy," he chortled, "and by Jupiter, we'll celebrate tonight. 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," he called, "don't forget that offer. A moment later Mickey said, frowning, "What was he talking about, Ben? That's what most of you want, isn't it? I looked at you as if you were Everson himself, because you seemed to understand the hunger that could lie in a man's heart.
 looking at the box Charlie left him
 finding out Charlie was dead  spending the evening with Laura  looking at the box Charlie left him  talking to Dean Dawson on the visiphone