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

<passage>:
This was Burnett's last trip. Three more shelves to fill with space-slain warriors—and [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Summer 1944. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Constellation . Opening the star-port. Extending the retriever claw. Plucking some poor warrior's body out of the void. He didn't like it any more. Ten years is too long to go back and forth from Earth to nowhere. You came out empty and you went back full-cargoed with a lot of warriors who didn't laugh or talk or smoke, who just lay on their shelves, all one hundred of them, waiting for a decent burial. "Number ninety-eight." Coming matter of fact and slow, Rice's voice "Number ninety-eight," Burnett repeated. "Working on ninety-five, ninety-six and ninety-seven now. Blood-pumps, preservative, slight surgery." Off a million miles away his voice was talking. It sounded deep. It didn't belong to him anymore. Rice said: "Boyohbody! Two more pick-ups and back to New York. Me for a ten-day drunk!" Burnett peeled the gloves off his huge, red, soft hands, slapped them Two men. Rice and himself. Sharing a cozy morgue ship with a hundred other men who had forgotten, quite suddenly, however, to talk again. Ten years of it. Every hour of those ten years eating like maggots inside, working out to the surface of Burnett's face, working under the husk of his starved eyes and starved limbs. Starved for life. Starved life, even while preservative was being pumped into their veins. "Sam! On the double! Up the rungs!" Burnett closed his eyes and said a couple of words, firmly. Nothing was worth running for any more. Another body. There had been one hundred thousand bodies preceding it. Nothing unusual about a body with blood cooling in it. without making any noise on the rungs. He kept thinking the one thing he couldn't forget. You never catch up with the war. titanic explosions and breathless pursuits, the flags and the excited glory are always a million miles ahead. He bit his teeth together. You never catch up with the war. You come along when space has settled back, when the vacuum has stopped trembling from unleashed forces between worlds. You come along in the billion centuries. And they kept dancing without music until you extended the retriever-claw and culled them into the air-lock. That was all the war-glory he got. Nothing but the stunned, shivering You wondered who all the men were and who the next ones would be. After ten years you made yourself blind to them. You went around doing your job with mechanical hands. But even a machine breaks down.... too dead. Venus-Earth mess started. It's been see-sawing back and forth since the green Earth. Grisly, yes, but it's routine. battle-cuiser to go against him?" "We'll radio for help?" "Yeah? If there's a warship within our radio range, seven hundred thousand miles, we'll get it. Unfortunately, the tide of battle has swept out past Earth in a new war concerning Io. That's out, Rice." Rice stood about three inches below Sam Burnett's six-foot-one. Jaw "You're one hell of a patriot, Sam Burnett!" Burnett reached out with one long finger, tapped it quietly on Rice's barrel-chest. "Haul a cargo of corpses for three thousand nights and days and see how patriotic you feel. All those fine muscled lads care much how I go back to earth. This Venusian here—what's his name? A crazy thought came ramming down and exploded in Burnett's head. You never catch up with the war! But what if the war catches up with you? Lethla nodded. His milk-blue eyes dilated. "Very marvelously pared to an unbreakable thickness of one-thirtieth of an inch worn only on the head. You have to look quickly to notice it, and, unfortunately, viewed Prickles of sweat appeared on Rice's face. He swore at the Venusian and the Venusian laughed like some sort of stringed instrument, high and ladder. Two long breaths later something crashed metal and glass and coils. The radio. "Rather unfortunately, yes. He's still alive, heading toward Venus unexpectedly yesterday near Mars. We were forced to take to the brief exams, returning alien corpses to space later." to Venus." "Accelerate toward Venus, mote-detectors wide open. Kriere must be picked up— now! " board the Constellation in half an hour or I'm no coroner." "Follow me up the ladder." chewed his lip, that would need a bit of doing. And even then the cargo wouldn't be full. Still one more body to get one hundred. And you never knew who it would be. He came out of the quick thoughts when he looped his long leg over hard. Venusians weren't blind with malice. Rice and he could come out stirring to life in Burnett's ears. Not so easily could they be ignored. You may never catch up with the war again. The last trip! "Very," said Burnett. He was thinking about three thousand eternal nights of young bodies being ripped, slaughtered, flung to the vacuum tides. Ten years of hating a job and hoping that some day there would be a last trip and it would all be over. Burnett laughed through his nose. Controls moved under his fingers like fluid "We're about fifty miles from him, catching up." Burnett turned to Lethla with an intent scowl. Funny. This was the first and the last time anybody would ever board the Constellation artery—heart. There was a way. And there was a weapon. And the war would be over and this would be the last trip. to be rescued. Burnett smiled right back at him. What Kriere didn't know was that he was about to end a ten-years' war. There was only one it had done a thousand times before but for the first time it was a good sound. And out of the star-port, at Sam Burnett's easily fingered directions, slid the long claw-like mechanism that picked up bodies know, Lethla, there's an old saying that only dead men come aboard the Constellation . I believe it." "To hell with it." Burnett winced, and fought to keep his eyes open. Something wet and sticky covered his chest. "I said this was my last trip and I meant it. One way or the other, I'd have quit!" "This is the hard way—" "Maybe. I dunno. Kind of nice to think of all those kids who'll never have to come aboard the , though, Rice." His voice trailed off. "You watch the shelves fill up and you never know who'll be next. Who'd have thought, four days ago—" Something happened to his tongue so it felt like hard ice blocking his mouth. He had a lot more words to say, but only time to get a few of "We haven't got a full cargo, boy." "Full enough for me, sir." "But still not full. If we went back to Center Base without filling the shelves, it wouldn't be right. Look there—number ninety-eight is Lethla—number ninety-nine is Kriere. Three thousand days of rolling this rocket, and not once come back without a bunch of the kids who want to sleep easy on the good green earth. Not right to be going back any way—but—the way—we used to—" His voice got all full of fog. As thick as the fists of a dozen million miles. "Ain't I one hell of a patriot, Rice?" Then everything got dark except Rice's face. And that was starting to And then he said softly: " One hundred. "

<question>:
How long have the Venusians and Earth been in conflict?

<options>:
A A decade
B Since Earthlings discovered interplanetary travel
C Since Venus was colonized
D A century

<answer>:

A