Read the following passage and questions, then choose the right answer from options, the answer should be one of A, B, C, D.

<passage>:
fear—a fear locked in my mind during the day and bursting out like an of the U. S. Academy of Interplanetary Flight. The first He's already reached Mars and Venus. Let him leave Jupiter and the Mickey Cameron, sitting next to me, dug an elbow into my ribs. "I don't 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 Stardust Charlie, we called him, although I never knew why. He was a veteran of Everson's first trip to the Moon nearly twenty-five years ago, and he was still at it. He was Chief Jetman now on the Lunar Lady , a commercial ore ship on a shuttle between Luna City and White Sands. 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. And I remembered, too, how his recommendation had finally made me a cadet. Lunar Lady was in White Sands now, but liberties, as Charlie said, were as scarce as water on Mars. It doesn't matter Then Mickey stiffened. "I see 'em, Ben! There in the fifth row!" Usually Mickey was the same whether in a furnace-hot engine room or a garden party, smiling, accepting whatever the world offered. But now a tenseness and an excitement had gripped even him. I was grateful that tonight. Yes, siree, I got twenty-four hours, and we'll celebrate as good spacemen should!" Then Mickey strode up to us. He was his normal, boyish self again, walking lightly, his blond, curly-haired skull swaying as if in rhythm introduction of Charlie. 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. meet you, Charlie. Just think—one of Everson's men, one of the first to reach the Moon!" Charlie gulped helplessly, and Mickey said: "Still going to spend the weekend with us, aren't you, Ben?" months to decide." "No, thanks," I answered. "Better not count on me." A moment later Mickey said, frowning, "What was he talking about, Ben? Did he make you an offer?" I laughed. "He offered me a job here at the Academy teaching astrogation. What a life that chance to be the first to reach a new planet. That's what most of you want, isn't it? That's what Mickey used to want." I looked at you as if you were Everson himself, because you seemed to "What did she mean, Mickey?" Mickey looked down at his feet. "I didn't want to tell you yet, Ben. We've been together a long time, planning to be on a rocket. But—" "Yes?" "Well, what does it add up to? You become a spaceman and wear a pretty another gets you. They don't insure rocketmen, you know." My stomach was full of churning, biting ice. "What are you trying to say, Mickey?" "I've thought about it a long time. They want me for Cargo Supervisor of White Sands Port." He raised his hand to stop me. "I know. It's not so exciting. I'll just live a lot longer. I'm sorry, Ben." I couldn't answer. It was as if someone had whacked the back of my 'copter. "Sure," I said to Mickey, "we can still have a good weekend." Stardust Charlie was as comfortable as a Martian sand-monkey in a shower, but he tried courageously to be himself. to watch for crimson-tailed continental rockets that occasionally streaked up from White Sands. "He's an old-time spaceman. You didn't need much education in those "But he wasn't always a spaceman. Didn't he ever have a family?" I know, his life began when he took off for the Moon with Everson." want to go to them. Mickey and I used to dream about them when we were and the spaceports and the Channel Tube. But after it was over, I maybe I haven't grown up yet?" Anxiety darkened your features. "No, it'd be good to be a spaceman, to see the strange places and make history. But is it worth it? Is it You can go into space in a Moon crash at the age of 36, or like a thousand others who lie Or there's the other path. To stay on this little prison of an Earth gonna get off the Shuttle this time, make one more trip to Mars. Tell Space Rat going to Mars. The medics wouldn't let him go even as far as Luna. We watched him leave, you and Mickey and I. "When will you be back?" you asked. My folks were killed in a rocket crash. If it weren't for rockets, I'd have lived the kind of life a kid should live. Mickey noticed my frown. "What's the matter, Ben? Still sore? I feel like a heel, but I'm just not like you and Charlie, I guess. I—" "No, I understand, Mickey. I'm not sore, really." "Listen, then. You haven't accepted any offer yet, have you?" "No. I got a couple of possibilities. Could get a berth on the Odyssey , the new ship being finished at Los Angeles. They want me, too, for the Moon Patrol, but that's old stuff, not much better than teaching. I want to be in deep space." "Well, how about staying with us till you decide? Might as well enjoy someone to tell me one of the old stories about space, a tale of much as I loved the stars. And I said, slowly, my voice sounding unfamiliar and far away, "Sure, I'll stay, Mickey. Sure." Forty days of joy, forty nights of fear and indecision. We did all the little things, like watching the rockets land at White Sands and flying down to the Gulf to swim in cool waters. You tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me to dance, and we talked about Everson and Charlie and the Moon Why must I make a choice? Why can't I have both "Can't a spaceman marry, too?" have to be a spaceman forever. I could try it for a couple of years, then teach." "Would you, Ben? Would you be satisfied with just seeing Mars? Wouldn't you want to go on to Jupiter and Saturn and Uranus and on and on?" "Do you think I'd dare have children, Ben? Mickey told me what happened You can't stay here. You've way to Pluto. Space Rat This was what remained of Charlie after twenty-five years in space. , I thought. You'd dream of sitting in a dingy stone dive on the Grand Canal with sand-wasps buzzing around smoky, stinking candles. A bottle of luchu juice and a couple of Martian girls with dirty feet for company. And a sudden cough that would be the first To hell with it! no compromise. And you know, too, which path he finally chose. He made his last trip to Luna when he knew he was going to die. Heaven knows how he escaped a checkup. Maybe the captain understood and was why he wanted to reach Mars? Do you know why he didn't want to die in the clean, cool air of Earth? We said, too, that the life of a spaceman is lonely. Yet how could one Space Rat he'll go with me in memory to whatever

<question>:
Why does Mickey decide not to go into space?

<options>:
A Mickey was offered a job as Chief Jetman on the Lunar Lady.
B Mickey was offered a job at the Academy teaching astrogation.
C Mickey thinks that if he goes into space he'll only live another five to ten years. Space travel is dangerous.
D Mickey was offered a job as Chief Jetman on the White Sands.

<answer>:

C