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

<passage>:
The Ship held an ancient secret that meant life to the dying cast-aways of the void. Then Wes Kirk revealed the secret to his people's enemies—and found that his betrayal Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that The hackles rose golden and stiff across Kirk's back. He said carefully, "I would like to kill the Captain and the First Officer and the Second Officer and all the little Officers, and the Engineers, and all their into the earth and sodded tight. A lot of huts, but not as many as there had been, the old ones said. The Hans died, and the huts were empty, and the wind and the earth took them back again. Sun caught in the huge luminous blackness of his eyes. Beyond the Hansquarter, just where the flat plain began to rise, were the Engineers. Not many of them any more. You could see the dusty lumps where the huts had been, the tumbled heaps of metal that might have And beyond the Engineers—the Officers. ones fought over a bone with no meat on it, rolling and snapping on the dirt floor. Kirk shifted his head forward to shut out the sound of them The Ship. Kirk's voice was soft in his thick throat. "I would like to kill them," he said. "I would like to kill them all." "Yah!" cried a shrill voice over his shoulder. "All but the Captain's yellow daughter!" to the heat and said wearily: "You men, always talking about killing! Haven't we enough trouble without that?" tight, quivering to move. "Besides," she demanded, "what have the Officers and the Engineers ever done to you that you should want to "Maybe," said Kirk heavily, "it all goes to the same place." there, awesome and accusing. Ma Kirk's eyes flicked to the curtain over "Don't you say things like that, Wes! You don't know." "It's what everybody says. Why else would they guard the Ship the way "Not when we can see 'em, no. Of course not. But how do we know they haven't got ways of getting into the Ship that don't show from the "There must be something in the Ship that they don't want us to have. Something valuable, something they want to keep for themselves. What "We don't know, Wes! The Ship is—well, we shouldn't talk about it. And the Officers wouldn't do that. If they wanted us killed off they'd let the Piruts in on us, or the shags, and let 'em finish us quick. Freezing and starving would take too long. There'd be too many of us if we found out, or got mad." including the Officers? As for slow death—well, they think we're dumb. They've kept us away from the Ship ever since the Crash , and nobody Officers want us killed off anyhow?" Men and youths like himself, old enough to fight, were spilling out of wind, stamping and shivering, their head-hair and scant fur clouts blown straight out. Randl nudged Kirk's elbow. "Look at 'em," he said, and coughed. He was bitter force, always probing. He wasn't much older than Kirk. Kirk looked up the hill. Officers were running from the huts below the gaunt, dead Ship. They didn't look so different from the Hans, only they were built a little taller and lighter, less bowed and bunchy in the shoulders, quicker on their feet. Kirk stepped behind Randl to shield him from the wind. His voice was was still in his ears. "Is it true, Jakk? Do you know? Because if they are...." groups of men began to run, off toward the west. The whisper of sound had grown louder in Kirk's ears. He could hear men yelling and the ringing of metal on stone. He started to run, holding Randl's elbow. Grey dust blew under their "What did you see?" The captain's yellow daughter, taking life into the Ship. head on. They hadn't taken it, not yet. But they were still trying, piling up their dead on the swept grey stone. They were using shags again. They drove the lumbering beasts on into the hail of stones and thrown spears from the pillbox, keeping low behind them, and then climbing on the round hairy bodies. It took drove them, and sometimes the dead ones weren't quite dead and it was to fight the Piruts, no matter what you thought about the Officers. You No time to think about that. Wite, the second son of the First Officer, was signalling for double time. Kirk ran faster, his ears twitching furiously as they sifted the flying echoes into some kind of order. Pa hadn't been alone, of course. Frank and Russ went with him. The three of them would have sense enough to keep safe. Maybe they were in fighting. A man needed shoulder room for spear and sling. It was pretty hot up there. The wall of bodies had built up so high, mostly with shags, that the Piruts were coming right over the wall. much as you and I do." "Think they could know what's in it?" Randl's narrow shoulders twitched. "Near as we know, their legend is the same as ours. Something holy in the Ship, sacred and tabu. Only difference is they want to get it for themselves, and we want to keep it." He coughed and spat in sudden angry disgust. "And we've swallowed that stuff. We've let the Officers hoard heat and food so they can live "Yeah. About what going to do." "It's up to you, Wes. You're the only one that really knows about the Ship. You'll do better than I would, anyhow. You're a fighter. You carry it on, so the Hans can live. Promise." Kirk nodded. He couldn't say anything. The heat was dying in Randl's eyes. "Yes." The O.D. was also the Third Officer. Taller than Kirk, thinner, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this...." Kirk knew. The knowledge leaped through him. It was strange, to feel a The Officer nodded. He seemed very tired, and he didn't look at Kirk. Something in the Officer's voice. them, fighting on the pillbox walls. But never one he'd known so long, one he'd eaten and slept and wrestled with. The thick arm that hauled own—from the front!" "I let them get as close as I dared," said the Officer tonelessly. "I Kirk's voice wasn't a voice at all. "You killed them. You killed my "Please try to understand," whispered the Officer. "I had to do it." The Officer, the bloody wall, the stars and the cold grey gullies all Looking up, calling to the men they knew, asking for help and getting a The Officer was gone. "Six men! Didn't know the kid had it in him." The Officer's voice said dully, "No discipline. Better take him home." Pa, and the Ship with the heat-stones in it, and the Captain's yellow daughter getting fat and warm while my sisters freeze and go hungry. I'll understand, and I'll make everybody else understand, too!" The Officer's eyes held a quick fire. "Boy! Do you know what you're "You bet I know!" "That's mutiny. For God's sake, don't make things worse!" "Worse for us, or for you?" Kirk was shouting, holding his head up in the wind. "Listen, you men! Do you know what the Officers are doing up there in the Ship they won't let us touch?" There was an uneasy stirring among the Hans, a slipping aside of luminous black eyes. The Officer shut his jaw tight. He stepped in close to Kirk. "Shut up," he said urgently. "Don't make me punish you, not now. You're talking rot, but it's dangerous." Kirk's eyes were hot and not quite sane. He couldn't have stopped if into...."

<question>:
What do we find out about about the Officers through the course of the story:

<options>:
A They protect the plain and the people living on it
B They are secretly allied with Piruts and staged the raid
C They are conquering Pirut territory
D They are at war with the Hans

<answer>:

A