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

<passage>:
followed him from the machine. [109] Klaft looked uneasy, embarrassed. left the chamber in which he lay. ground car and is gone." "He did?" Kinton had an put to him often during the ten years since his rocket had hurtled through the meteorite belt and down to the surface of Tepokt, leaving him the only survivor. Barred off as they were from venturing into space, the braying in his ears. Klaft was He stopped, his own words "Why did he say he was traveling surface even in a battered hulk. thinking to himself of the spaceship! them by surprise, he killed two of the constables and injured the third before fleeing with one constantly shifting. Birken had been only too accurate. the shortness of their two bowed the patient. whether part of them come from though he was the first stellar visitor in their recorded history, Kinton remained conscious of the have proved mathematically He felt his face flushing with He broke off at the word "spaceship" but he noticed a reserved cabin and Klaft gave brisk orders to the lean young pilot. A moment later, Kinton saw the As they passed the man below, ground outside drop away. Only upon turning around did limp, satiny paper held before his contraption with a quadruple "I am informed that another ship from space has reached the surface of Tepokt. tube for launching tiny rockets the crew are of my own planet." [104] Klaft excitedly skipped down Or to get Birken? Kinton hesitated. Those in the no thicker than Kinton's thumb. about Birken. passing the dam," Klaft reported soberly after having been called to the pilot's compartment. "He stopped to demand fuel from some maintenance workers, but spear, I suppose but he is only one and injured." Klaft hesitated. "Well, couldn't they?" Later, aboard the jet helicopter that was basically like those Kinton remembered using was responsible for Birken, who He wondered what to do. He that Birken was delirious, or acting about the ship!" Kinton muttered, gnawing the knuckle of his left thumb. "He's on the run, Would Birken listen if he tried a certain lack of drive resulted from the inability to break out into interplanetary space. Kinton had been inexplicably lucky to have reached the approaching, Kinton saw a halted The shell of meteorites was at least a hundred miles thick and upthrust bulk of the spaceship that had never flown. "Never mind landing at the a lone figure plodded toward the "We do not know if they have a destroyed satellite but our observers always been meteorites," the Birken looked up. He continued to limp along at a brisk Tepoktans had told Kinton, "or like a short spear. "Go down!" Kinton ordered. The pilot landed about a hundred yards from the spaceship. By the time his passengers had alighted, however, Birken had drawn level with them, about pace with the aid of what looked "Birken!" shouted Kinton. him, Birken slowed his pace, but kept walking toward the ship. "Sorry, Kinton," he shouted with no noticeable tone of regret. "I figure I better travel on for "It's not so damn healthy up there!" called Kinton. "I told you how there's no clear path—" "Wait! Don't you think they tried sending unmanned rockets up? Every one was struck and exploded." Birken showed no more change of Tepokt was passing by the time he set foot on the landing field, and he paused to look six or eight paces, irritated despite his anxiety at the way Birken up. persisted in drifting before Kinton couldn't just grab him—bad leg or not, he could probably break the older man in two. He glanced back at the Tepoktans him. beside the helicopter, Klaft, Milky Way. Klaft, who had descended first, leaving the pilot to bring up the rear, noticed Kinton's pause. ship. "But he'll only get himself killed and destroy the ship! Or if some miracle gets him through, that's worse! He's He turned again to Birken, as he realized that keeping Birken satellites had been destroyed or only one. first time he had been crossed. "Birken!" he shouted. "For that Kinton was able to learn a Birken stopped at that. He regarded few facts about the new arrival. The crash had been several hundred miles away, but someone had thought of the hospital in in human physiology. The survivor—only one occupant of the wreck, alive or dead, had been discovered—had accordingly been flown here. By the time Kinton's aging muscles obeyed his impulse to sidestep, the spear had already hurtled past. It had missed him by an error of over six feet. [113] He broke off at the sound from sudden anger. Birken was running hoping for! The spaceman had been cleaned up and bandaged by the native medicos. Kinton saw that his left thigh was probably broken. Other dressings suggested cracked ribs and lacerations on the head and shoulders. The "A Terran!" mumbled the injured man. sleep, his mouth was thin and hard. "Thrown across the controls after his belt broke loose?" Kinton guessed. tried to sit up, and subsided with seizing the weapon had him panting. He shook his head dazedly, decided that Birken had not come limping ... hurt ... how could they expect him to realize—? steadied on Birken as the latter gradually to bracket the figure of Birken. One struck the ground beside the man just as he set one foot on the bottom rung of the ladder, and skittered away past one fin of the ship before exploding. Two others burst against the hull, scattering metal fragments, and another puffed on the upright of the ladder just above Birken's head. The spaceman was blown back from the ladder. He balanced on his heels for a moment with outstretched a groan. the grips from which they had been torn. Then he crumpled into a limp huddle on the yellowing turf. Terran did not reach for it, the The spaceman considered that for a few breaths, then seemed "Al Birken," he introduced the intervening ground to bend over Birken. "He is dead," said Klaft when anything gets through to the surface, let alone a spaceship. What happened to you?" Birken's stare was suspicious. [114] various organs for a few planet too." "How did you happen to do it? Run out of fuel?" and slumped into his seat. Presently, seconds before dropping his gaze. Kinton was struck with He climbed into the helicopter he was aware of Klaft edging months!" The other eyed him for a few into the seat across the aisle. Birken replied at last. Didn't want nobody else hurt if I didn't make it. Say, how bad am I banged up?" Kinton realized guiltily that "What? Why ... why ... he would have destroyed the ship George?" the man should be resting. He you worked so hard to build. There is no safe path through He questioned the doctor briefly and relayed the information that Birken's leg was broken but that the other injuries were not serious. "They'll fix you up," he assured the spaceman. "They're For the next three weeks, Kinton to the hospital. The doctors operated upon Birken's leg, inserting a metal rod inside the bone by a method they had known before Kinton described it. The new arrival expected to be able to walk, with the pin would have to be removed after the bone had healed. Meanwhile, Birken seemed eager to about the planet, Tepokt. About himself, he was remarkably reticent. Kinton worried tell me little about himself. It may be that he was caught in Tepokt's gravity while fleeing from justice." To himself, he wished he had not told Birken about the spaceship.

<question>:
Why was Birken limping during his approach to the space ship?

<options>:
A His leg was hurt in a crash duringthe chase with the authorities
B The Tepoktans had shot his leg while he was running towards the ship
C The Tepoktans had operated on his leg to study his physiology
D His leg was broken in his initial crash on the planet

<answer>:

D