 What is Ben's relationship with Charlie?
How can I tell you what it's like to be young and a man and to dream of reaching the stars? 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." Mickey Cameron, sitting next to me, dug an elbow into my ribs. 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 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. They expect us to make a new kind of civilization and a better place out of Earth. He was his normal, boyish self again, walking lightly, his blond, curly-haired skull swaying as if in rhythm with some silent melody. And you, Laura, were with him. 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. You shook hands and said, softly: "It's a privilege to meet you, Charlie. Charlie gulped helplessly, and Mickey said: "Still going to spend the weekend with us, aren't you, Ben?" "Charlie has only twenty-four hours liberty. "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? Then your last words came back and jabbed me: "That's what Mickey used to want."
 Charlie is the only family Ben has.
 Chalie is Ben's uncle.  Charlie is Ben's favorite teacher at the Academy.  Charlie is Ben's grandfather.  Charlie is the only family Ben has.