 Which word least describes Charlie?
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. 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." I was worshiping him and hating him at the same time, for I was thinking: He's already reached Mars and Venus. 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. The Universe was mighty big, but with two of us to face it together, it would be only half as big. They expect us to make a new kind of civilization and a better place out of Earth. 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 has only twenty-four hours liberty. That's what most of you want, isn't it?
 regretful
 proud  sick  experienced  regretful