 Why did the story open the way it did?
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. 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. 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. You kept looking at me until I had to ask: "What are you thinking, Laura?" But after it was over, I realized England wasn't so different from America.
 to describe how torn Ben was in his decisions
 to show how frustrated he was with space  because his training was good and bad  because that was how long he'd been away from Laura  to describe how torn Ben was in his decisions