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

<passage>:
Eridans take them seriously? All that waited for the Cleopatra reception at the hands of the defenders of 40 Eridani C II, while here was mystery at close range. Mystery that was not cosmic in scope ... just a swarm of innocuous seeming planetoids ... the first explorable worlds that they had neared in this universe. Strike decided to heave to and examine their find. Ivy wanted samples and though no one said it in so many words ... no one was anxious for another encounter with the rapacious Eridans. With typically human adaptiveness they "Could there be two Strykalskis?" demanded the owner of the name under discussion. "No." Whitley sighed unhappily. "And there's only one Tellurian Rocket Ship Cleopatra had sublimated their fear of the unknown space in which they found themselves. Curiosity took the place of fear and here was something close at hand to probe. Anthropoid inquisitiveness prevailed. Hendricks again, I know you! Tethys!" Strike made a passing effort to look stern and failed. "You mean Fleet skeeterboats had discovered a race of group-minded, non-human intelligences on the planets of 40 Eridani C. They lived in frozen human had seen. The group-mind. They were rabidly isolationist and they 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 Cleopatra to Tethys for work under the Bureau of Research and Development meant innovations and tests. And Commander Strykalski was concerned. The beloved Old Cleopatra's Radar Officer, and like all the rest, bound with chains of affection to the cranky old warship. The Cleopatra's of the word. They served in her because they wanted to ... would serve in no other. That's the way Strike ran his crew, and that's the way the crew ran Lover-Girl. Old Aphrodisiac's family was a select community. There was a handsome Martian Naval Lieutenant with Celia, but when she to be treated with respect." He affected a very knowing expression. "Besides, we shouldn't be gallivanting around testing Ivy's electronic eyelash-curlers when the Eridans are likely to be swooshing around old Sol any day!" Tethys. But her satisfied repose was interrupted almost before it was begun. Swarms of techmen seemed to burst from the dome and take her began again. Ivy, as a former member of the Cleopatra's crew, was one been disposed of, "is what's with this 'Project Warp'? What are you planning for Lover-Girl? Your techmen are tearing into her like she was a twenty-day leave!" "And why was the Cleopatra chosen?" added Celia curiously. star-fields ... star-fields that were utterly different and ... and alien looked over to Ivy. "Am I right?" "Right on the nose, Strike," she returned. Then she broke into a wide through from the Proxima transsender ... they're under attack!" Strykalski was on his feet. "Attack!" "The nonhumans from Eridanus have launched a major invasion of the solar Combine! All the colonies in Centaurus are being invaded!" Strike felt the bottom dropping out of his stomach, and he knew that all the others felt the same. If this was a war, they were the ones who would have to fight it. And the Eridans! Awful leathery creatures with tentacles ... chlorine breathers! They would make a formidable enemy, welded as they were into one fighting unit by the functioning of wartime! The When Cob asked why, Strike replied that knowing Gorman, they could expect orders from Luna Base ordering them either to attack or planet of 40 Eridani C II unquote," said the squawk-box flatly. Eridanus. At eight and a half light years from Sol, the second-order chlorine lines...." "Eridans!" cried Ivy. "What's the range, Celia?" demanded Strike. "And how many of them are there?" have some sort of radiation net out and they are moving into spread formation." Strike cursed. "They've spotted us and they want to scoop us in with that force net! Damn that group-mind of theirs ... it makes for uncanny deadly pale, mouth pinched and drawn. This was the first time in battle for any of them ... and she dug her fingernails into her palms trying not to be afraid. the alien fleet. Old Aphrodisiac readied herself for war. Like a maddened bull terrier, the old monitor charged at the Eridan horde. Within the black hulls strange, tentacled creatures watched her in scanners that were activated by infrared light. The chlorine atmosphere grew tense as the Tellurian warship drove full at the 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 it prepared to kill the tiny Tellurian thing that dared to threaten its right to conquest. Old Lover-Girl tried gallantly to pierce the strange trap. She failed. her rifles to wreak havoc among her attackers. Being non-entities in themselves, and only limbs of the single mentality that rested secure on its home world, the Eridans lacked the vicious will to live that drove the Tellurian warship and her crew. But their numbers wore her down, cutting her strength with each blow that chanced to connect. Torpedoes from the tubes that circled her beam found marks out in space and leathery aliens died, their black ships burst asunder by the violence of new atoms being created from old. battle. "She can't stand much more of this!" 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!..." hyper drive's warp field. With a prayer on his lips, he slapped at the switches with wild abandon.... stretching cold fingers into his heart and mind. He realized that everyone on board must feel the same way. It was the old human devil rising from the pit of the primeval past. Fear of the unknown, of the apart from their kind. He felt rejected, scorned and lost. The others felt it, too. Ivy and Cob drew closer, until all three stood touching each other came into the bridge softly ... just to be near her friends. It was only the fact that they could return at will to their own space ... and the danger of the questing Eridans ... that kept one or all from crying out in utter childish fear. Celia Graham whimpered reassurance he did not feel. Then Strike broke the spell. The effort was great, but it brushed away the shadows that had risen to plague them from the tortured abyss of racial memory. It brought them back to what they were: highly civilized people, parts of an intricately technological culture. Their ship was a part of that culture. The only part they could cling to. The Cleopatra demanded attention and service, and her demanding saved them. "Cob," Strike directed with forced briskness, "Take over Damage agoraphobia must be more acute, reasoned Strike, and Bayne must have been subconsciously stirred up by the disappearance of the familiar stars that were his stock-in-trade. and her crew were no part of this alien cosmos, no prime-space instruments could detect the errant mass. Like a microscopic bull in a gargantuan china shop, the Tellurian warship existed under a completely different set of physical laws than

<question>:
Why did the Eridians engage in war?

<options>:
A Their ability to overtake new planets and systems was threatened
B They sensed the Tellurians were going to ambush them and acted in defense
C They did not engage in war
D They sought revenge on the Tellurians

<answer>:

A