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

<passage>:
did the heavenly bodies of this strange space. transiting the constellations in a disreputable that the thickness of the outer hull was actually being reduced. The rate was slow, and there was no immediate danger, but it was something . Also, the outside Geigs recorded a phenomenal amount A tense week passed and then the ship neared the spot where a change over to prime-space could be effected. According to Bayne's calculations, 40 Eridani C would be within 40,000,000 miles of them when the ship emerged from hyper space. And then the Radar section picked up the planetoids. Millions of them, in all directions for more than half a parsec ... dull, rocky little worlds without a gram of detectable mass. All that waited for the Cleopatra "Warp!" had refused any commerce with the Solar Combine. Only CSN Intelligence knew that the Eridans were warlike ... and that they were strongly suspected of having interstellar flight.... So, reflected Strike, the transfer of the warship. The Cleopatra's eyelash-curlers when the Eridans are likely to be swooshing around old Sol any day!" bridge." "What time do you want to lift ship?" "0900 hours." The flight out was uneventful. Uneventful, that is for the T.R.S. Cleopatra . Only one tube-liner burned through, and only six hours million miles of Jupiter and settled comfortably down on the airless field next to the glass-steel dome of the Experimental Substation on Tethys. But her satisfied repose was interrupted almost before it was armed with voluminous blueprints and atomic torches set to work on her even before her tubes had cooled. Power lines were crossed and a twenty-day leave!" chosen?" added Celia curiously. "Well, I'll make it short," Ivy said. "We're going to make a hyper-ship out of her." "Hyper-ship?" Cob was perplexed. Ivy Hendricks nodded. "We've stumbled on a laboratory effect that warps space. We plan to reproduce it in portable form on the Cleopatra ... king size. She'll be able to take us through the hyper-spatial barrier." "Golly!" Celia Graham was wide-eyed. "I always thought of hyperspace as a ... well, sort of an abstraction." "That's been the view up to now. We all shared it here, too, until "I'll answer that," offered Strike, "Lover-Girl's a surge circuit monitor, and it's a safe bet this operation takes plenty of power." He looked over to Ivy. "Am I right?" the group-mind.... He heard himself saying sharply into Ivy's communicator: "See to it that my ship is fueled and armed for space within three hours!" "Hold on, Strike!" Ivy Hendricks intervened, "What about the tests?" a warship and there's a war on now. If you can have your gear jerry-rigged in three hours, you can come along and test it when we have the chance. Otherwise the hell with it!" Strykalski's face was dead set. "I mean it, Ivy." "All right, Strike. I'll be ready," Ivy Hendricks said coolly. Exactly three hours and five minutes later, the newly created planet of 40 Eridani C II unquote," said the squawk-box flatly. Three weeks passed in the timeless limbo of second-order flight. Blast Cleopatra rode the curvature of space toward Eridanus. At eight and a half light years from Sol, the second-order was cut so that Bayne could get a star sight. As the lights of the celestial globe slowly retreated from their unnatural grouping ahead and astern, brilliant Sirius and its dwarf companion showed definite disks in the starboard ports. At a distance of 90,000,000 miles from the Dog Star, its fourteen heavy-gravity planets were plainly visible through the electron telescope. "Eridans!" cried Ivy. "What's the range, Celia?" demanded Strike. "And how many of them are there?" The sound of the calculator came through the grill. Then Celia replied: "Range 170,000 miles, and there are more than fifty and less than two hundred. That's the best I can do from this far away. They seem to have some sort of radiation net out and they are moving into spread formation." "Shift into second-order! We'll have to try and run their net!" "Communications!" called Strike. speed!" Ivy could feel her heart pounding under her blouse. Her face was deadly pale, mouth pinched and drawn. This was the first time in battle "Radar!" "Right here, Skipper!" "We're going into second-order, Celia. Use UV Radar and keep tabs on Strike turned to Ivy Hendricks. "Let's get back to the bridge, Ivy. It's going to be a hell of a rough half hour!" As they turned to go, all the pin-points of light that were the stars vanished, only to reappear in distorted groups ahead and behind the ship. They were in second-order flight again, and traveling above light speed. Within seconds, contact would be made with the advance units of the alien fleet. Old Aphrodisiac readied herself for war. pulsating net of interlocked force lines. Parsecs away, on a frozen world were a dull red shrunken sun shone dimly through fetid air, the thing that was the group-mind of the Eridans guided the thousand leathery tentacles that controlled the hundred and fifty black spaceships. The soft quivering bulk of it throbbed with excitement as the life from her second-order generators, and she slowed, like the her flanks as she turned and twisted. One touched her atmospheric fins and melted them into slowly congealing globes of steel glowing with a white heat. She fought back with whorls of atomic fire that sped from her rifles to wreak havoc among her attackers. their numbers wore her down, cutting her strength with each blow that chanced to connect. The second-order drive was damaged, not beyond repair, but out of commission for at least six hours. And they couldn't last six hours. They couldn't last another ten minutes. It was only the practiced hands of her Captain and crew that kept the circuit, his blood heated by the turbulent cacophony of crackling rays and exploding torpedoes. "Hit 'em! Damn it! Damn it, hit 'em now! Dead ahead! Hit 'em again!..." Ivy stumbled across the throbbing deck to stand at Strykalski's side. "The hyper drive!" she yelled, "The hyper drive!" It was a chance. It was the only hyper drive's warp field. With a prayer on his lips, he slapped at the switches with wild abandon.... The sudden silence was like a physical blow. Strike staggered to the rays. No torpedoes flashed. The Cleopatra and the whole hull of the ship is glowing !" dim, dancing witchfire. It was as though the ship were being bombarded by a continuous shower of microscopic fire bombs. Control. See what can be done about the second-order drive." gyro-headings." "What?" The astrogator sounded as though he thought Strike had lost his mind. "Through orbit." The second-order drive repaired, Old Aphrodisiac moved out through the side of the barrier. The ship's tactical astrophysicist brought in some disturbing reports on the stars that shone brightly all around her. They fitted the accepted classifications in all particulars ... except one. And that one had the scientist tearing his hair. The mass of every observable body except the ship herself was practically non-existent. Even the two planetary systems discovered by the electron telescope flouted their impossible lack of mass. Ivy suggested that since the mass. Like a microscopic bull in a gargantuan china shop, the Tellurian warship existed under a completely different set of physical laws than

<question>:
How fast is second-order flight?

<options>:
A Quarter the speed of light
B Twice the speed of light
C At least faster than the speed of light
D Half the speed of light

<answer>:

C