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 Last Monster By GARDNER F. FOX Irgi was the last of his monster race, guardian of a dead planet, master of the secret of immortality. It was he whom the four men from Earth had to conquer to gain that secret—a tentacled monstrosity whom Earthly weapons could not touch. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Irgi was the last of his race. There was no one else, now there had been no others for hundreds and hundreds of years. Irgi had lost count of time dwelling alone amid the marble halls of the eon-ancient city, but he knew that much. There were no others. Only Irgi, alone. clinging shelter, destroying dust and germs. Irgi had discovered the mist many years ago, when it was too late to save his kind. and nourished." He touched the jeweled controls, shutting the power to a low murmur. He Emerson took his hands from the controls of the gigantic ship that in the void. "The last planet in our course," he breathed. "Maybe it has the radium!" "Yes," whispered the man beside him, wetting his lips with his tongue. "No use to think of failure. If it hasn't, we'll die ourselves, down there." back in the first days of space travel, after Quigg, the American research scientist at Cal Tech, discovered a way to lift a rocket ship off the Earth, and propel it to the Moon. They had been slow, lumbering vessels, those first spaceships not at all like the sleek craft that plied the voids today. But it had been a beginning. And no one had thought anything of it when Quigg, who had made the first flight through space, died of cancer. As the years passed to a decade, and the ships of Earth rode to Mars and Venus, it began to be apparent that a lifetime of space travel meant a hideous death. Scientists attributed it to the cosmic rays, for out in space there was no blanketing layer of atmosphere to protect the fleshy tissues of man from their piercing power. It had long been a theory that cosmic rays were related to the birth of new life in the causing the unorderly growth of new cells that man called cancer, the cosmic rays were destroying the life they had created. It meant death to travel in space, and only the stupendous fees paid to the young men who believed in a short life and a merry one, kept the ships plying between Mars and Earth and Venus. Lead kept out the cosmic rays, but lead would not stand the terrific speed required to lift a craft free of planetary gravity contagious to a certain extent. The alarm spread. Men who voyaged in space were segregated, but the damage had been done. The Plague spread, and ravaged the peoples of three planets. Hospitals were set up, and precious radium used for the fight. But the radium was hard to come by. There was just not enough for the job. barge by comparison. And mankind gave it to Valentine Emerson to take it out among the stars to find the precious radium in sufficient quantities to halt the Plague. It had not been easy to find a crew. The three worlds knew the men were going to their doom. It would be a miracle if ever they reached a single planet, if they did not perish of space cancer before their first goal. Carson Nichols, whose wife and children were dying of the Plague, begged him for a chance. A murderer convicted to the Martian "A hell of a way to spend my last days," he growled. "I'm dying on my feet, and I've got to be a martyr to a billion people who don't know I'm alive." "You know a better way to die, of course," replied Emerson. "You bet I do. There's a sweet little redhead in New Mars. She'd make Emerson snorted, glancing down at the controls. Beneath his steady Emerson shook his head, frowning, suddenly glad that the others had gasping. "Wot's happenin' now?" choked Gunn. "We're off the ground! Whatever it is, it's lifting us." A section of the globe slid back, and the spaceship moved through the opening. The globe slipped back and locked after it. "They have us now," grunted Mussdorf. He slid his fingers along the The green beam was gone, suddenly. The uncanny silence of the place pressed in on them. "Think it's safe to go out?" asked Nichols. "Try the atmospheric recorder," said Emerson. "If the air's okay, I'd like to stretch my own legs." No disease." He began to laugh, then caught himself. "No disease," he whispered, "and every one of us is going to die of cancer." Mussdorf came up through the trap and passed out the sun-blasters. They The big Earthman was lifted high into the air, squeezed until his lungs nearly collapsed. He hung limp in a gigantic tentacle as Emerson ran Emerson, while its other arms stabbed out at Gunn and Nichols, catching they were, unlike anything Irgi had ever conceived. Only two legs, only two arms. And such weak little limbs! Why, an Urgian cat would make short work of them if an Urgian cat existed any more, and Irgi had never rated cats very highly. glance back at the creatures again, and shook his head. Strange beings they might be, but they had mastered interplanetary travel. Well, he'd He carried these creatures easily, without trouble. The ease of his passage gave him time to think. have to be prepared. And the preparation—hurt. Well, better a few moments of agony than a death through a worse. And if he could not speak to them, they could speak to him, through "It's short-circulated their nervous systems for a while, absorbed the electric charges all intelligent beings cast," Irgi said aloud, glad at this chance to exercise his voice. "They won't be able to feel for some time. When the worst pain will have passed, they will recover. And now to examine their minds—" Urgians alive to build a statue to him . but he could save it ! Turning, he saw the figures of the four men stiffen to rigidity as a red aura drifted upward from the tabletop, passing through them as if "When they realize that I am their friend, they will gladly hear my counsels!" Opening the laboratory door, Irgi passed out and closed it behind him. He flipped his head to right, to left saw the others stretched out and strapped even as he. They were unconscious. What right had they to It woke the others. They too, bellowed and screamed and sobbed, and their arms and legs writhed like wild things in a trap. "Got to get free," Emerson panted, straining against the wristbands. The hard muscles of his arms ridged with effort, but the straps held. "I'll have you all loose in a second," he grunted, ripping straps from his body. He leaped from the table and stretched. He grinned into their faces. "You know, it's funny—but I feel great. Huh, I must've sweated all the aches out of me. Here, Gunn—you first." Emerson squirmed helplessly, cursing him, saying, "What's gotten into mine convict. I'd have done anything to get out of that boiling hell. I volunteered to go with you for the radium. Me and Gunn. Nichols doesn't count. He came on account of his wife and kids. We were the only two who'd come. Convicts, both of us."

<question>:
Why did Emerson end up with a crew consisting of two criminals and a desperate dad?

<options>:
A Simple: Space Force Command simply picked the four most expendable people who could run a spaceship.
B Simple: all four men were lifelong friends, having grown up together, even if two of them did go bad and end up in prison.
C Simple: traveling in space was known to be a death sentence due to the sickness induced by cosmic rays, so no one else wanted to go.
D Simple: they were the only four people left on Earth healthy enough to try to make the journey.

<answer>:

C