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

<passage>:
leathery-tentacled, chlorine-breathing Eridans take them seriously? calculations, 40 Eridani C would be within 40,000,000 miles of them GROUNDS TETHYS SATURNIAN GROUP STOP CO WILL REPORT UPON ARRIVAL TO worlds without a gram of detectable mass. All that waited for the Cleopatra 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 in the Combined Solarian Navies, bless her little iron 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. Strike made a passing effort to look stern and failed. "You mean Captain But there was apparently more to this transfer than just Ivy pulling wires to see him again. Things were tense in the System since Probe Fleet skeeterboats had discovered a race of group-minded, non-human intelligences on the planets of 40 Eridani C. They lived in frozen worlds that were untenable for humans. And they were apparently all parts of a single entity that never left the home globe ... a thing no 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 Aphrodisiac didn't take kindly to innovations. At least she never had before, and Strike could see no reason to suppose the cantankerous monitor would have changed her disposition. like all the rest, bound with chains of affection to the cranky old warship. The Cleopatra's 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!" "Cob, you're drunk!" snapped Celia. Tethys. But her satisfied repose was interrupted almost before it was begun. Swarms of techmen seemed to burst from the dome and take her over. Welders and physicists, naval architects and shipfitters, all 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 star-fields ... star-fields that were utterly different and ... and alien 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 "Hold on, Strike!" Ivy Hendricks intervened, "What about the tests?" "I'm temporarily under Research and Development command, Ivy, but Regulations say that fighting ships cannot be held inactive during wartime! The Cleopatra's of stars below Orion that formed the constellation of Eridanus. When Cob asked why, Strike replied that knowing Gorman, they could expect orders from Luna Base ordering them either to attack or reconnoiter the 40 Eridani C system of five planets. Strykalski added or her crew. Ivy Hendricks joined them after stowing her gear, and when Whitley asked her opinion, she agreed with Strike. Her experiences with Gorman planet of 40 Eridani C II unquote," said the squawk-box flatly. "Acknowledge," ordered Strykalski. "Wilco. Communications out." Strike made an I-told-you-so gesture to his Executive. Then he turned 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 "Shift into second-order! We'll have to try and run their net!" "Yes, sir," Whitley snapped. "Communications!" called Strike. "Communications here." "Notify Luna Base we have made contact. Give their numbers, course, and speed!" vanished, only to reappear in distorted groups ahead and behind the ship. They were in second-order flight again, and traveling above light speed. Within seconds, contact would be made with the advance units of the alien fleet. Old Aphrodisiac readied herself for war. 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. and Cob and Celia ... for all of them. He had to chance it. "Ivy!" he called over his shoulder, "Check with Engineering! See if the thing's hooked into the surge circuit!" 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 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 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 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. Cleopatra 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>:
What are the Eridians?

<options>:
A Drones without the ability to think autonomously
B A species capable of regrowing tentacles that are lost in combat
C Tentacled creatures with the ability to read each other's minds
D Tellurians that went rogue

<answer>:

C