 Why doesn't Charlie want to go with Laura and Mickey?
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. They're going to find new land for our colonists, good rich land that will bear food and be a home for our children. Mickey Cameron, sitting next to me, dug an elbow into my ribs. Just one, which I'd sent to Charlie Taggart. 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. Usually Mickey was the same whether in a furnace-hot engine room or a garden party, smiling, accepting whatever the world offered. And you, Laura, were with him. You and Mickey looked strangely at Charlie, and I realized that old Stardust was not a cadet's notion of the ideal spaceman. Charlie scorned the skin-tight uniforms of the government service and wore a shiny black suit that was a relic of Everson's early-day Moon Patrol. Charlie gulped helplessly, and Mickey said: "Still going to spend the weekend with us, aren't you, Ben?" A moment later Mickey said, frowning, "What was he talking about, Ben? Then your last words came back and jabbed me: "That's what Mickey used to want."
 Charlie is dying and Ben is the only family he has. He wants to spend his last moments with Ben.
 Charlie is not really a people person. He likes Ben, but that's about it.  Charlie is very self-conscious about his scars. He is uncomfortable around other people.  Charlie is uncomfortable with Laura and Mickey's wealth. He feels a bit shabby because his coat is missing a button.  Charlie is dying and Ben is the only family he has. He wants to spend his last moments with Ben.