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

<passage>:
“All right,” Doggo wrote, and the conference was at an end. The morrow would decide the ascendancy of Myles Cabot or the Prince Yuri over the new continent. IV opened. 19 On a raised platform stood the ant queen, surmounted by a scarlet canopy, which set off the perfect proportions of her jet-black body. On each side of her stood six refined and intelligent ant-men, her councillors. One of the twelve was Doggo. Messenger ants hurried hither and thither. Cupia from the domination of its Formian oppressors. he had led the Cupians to victory over their oppressors, a human-brained race of gigantic black ants. He had driven the last ant from the face of continental Poros, and had won and wed the Princess Lilla, who had borne him a son to occupy the throne of Cupia. this a part of the executive session, obligingly translated the following into writing: The messenger: “Yuri lives and reigns over Cupia. It is his command that Cabot die.” Barth: “It is the radio. Know then, O Queen, and ye, seas under the gallant leadership of Prince Yuri, the man “Supporters of Yuri still remained among the Cupians, “Then Yuri disappeared. Those of us who were closest to him suspected that he had gone back across the boiling seas to claim as his own the throne of Cupia. But we hesitated boiling seas again.” “It is a lie!” Doggo shouted. “Yuri, usurper of the thrones of two continents. Bah!” shouted Emu. “Yuri, our rightful leader,” shouted Barth. “Give us a queen of our own race,” shouted Fum. “Release the prisoner,” shouted the Queen. obeyed the queen. The earth-man was free! With one bound he gained the throne, where fighting was already in progress between the two factions. Barth and Doggo were rolling over and over on the floor in a death grapple, while the ant-queen had backed to the rear of the stage, closely guarded by Emu and Fum. Seizing one of the pikes which supported the scarlet of Barth. In another instant the earth-man and Doggo stood beside the queen. Ant-men now came pouring into the chamber through all the entrances, taking sides as they entered and sized up the latest developments of modern terrestrial science for the benefit of the Cupian nation. He was the regent of Cupia during the minority of his baby son, King Kew the Thirteenth. The loyal Prince Toron occupied the throne in his absence. The last of the ant-men and their ally, the renegade Cupian Prince Yuri, had presumably perished in an attempt to escape by flying through the steam-clouds which completely hem in continental Poros. What lay beyond the but ants! Ants, six-footed, and six feet high. Huge ants, four planet, so as to talk with Cupians and Formians, both of He dreaded the paralyzing bite which Formians usually The other three ants kept away from him as Doggo led (or, rather, claws) of his old enemies, the Formians? He had been their prisoner before, and had escaped. Once more he could escape, and rescue the Princess Lilla. thus had escaped the general extermination of their race. In either event, how had they been able to reconquer Cupia? And where was their former leader, Yuri, the renegade Cupian prince? These and a hundred other similar questions flooded in blue-eyed, golden-haired Lilla, Crown Princess of Cupia. The earth-man sighed. Where was his beloved wife now? a small table, for ant-men have no use for chairs and of a Formian. “How is my princess and my son, the baby king? Whence come all you Formians, whose race I thought had been exterminated? What part of Cupia is this? What is this city? Where is Prince Yuri? And what do you intend to do with me this the ruins of our last stronghold and braved the dangers of the steam clouds which overhang the boiling seas? Our leader was Prince Yuri, erstwhile contender for the throne of Cupia, splendid even in defeat. “It was his brain that conceived our daring plan of “Here we are, and here are you, in Yuriana, capitol of power, what shall you do with me?” “Old friend,” Doggo wrote in reply, “that depends entirely upon Yuri, our king, whose toga you now have on.” III YURI OR FORMIS? The earth-man grimaced, but then smiled. Perhaps, his succeeding to the toga of King Yuri might prove to be an omen. 15 “So Yuri is king of the ants?” he asked. “Yes,” his captor replied, “for Queen Formis did not survive the trip across the boiling seas.” “Then what of your empire?” Myles inquired. “No queen. No eggs. How can your race continue? For you Formians are like the ants on my own planet Minos.” Doggo’s reply astounded him. “Do you remember back at Wautoosa, I told you that some of us lesser Formians had occasionally laid eggs? So now behold before you Doggo, Admiral of the Formian Air Navy, and mother of a new Queen Formis.” This was truly a surprise! All along Cabot had always regarded the Formians as mannish. And rightly so, for they among the Cupians. Furthermore, all Formians, save only the reigning Formis herself, were called by the Porovian pronoun, which corresponds to “he” in English. of some importance among the Formians.” ought to,” the ant-man replied, “but as a matter of fact, it merely intensifies Yuri’s mistrust and hatred of me. Now that I am mother of the queen, he fears that I may turn against him and establish Formis in his place as the head of an empire of the Formians, by the Formians, and for the Formians exclusively.” The earth-man, however, persisted. “How many of the council can you count on, if the interests of Yuri should clash with those of Formis?” 16 “Only one—myself.” a cause, or a friend?” “No,” Doggo replied. “Then,” Myles wrote, “let us make your daughter queen in fact as well as in name.” “It is treason,” Doggo wrote in reply, but this time he Is it treason to support your own queen? What has become of the national pride of the once great Formians? Look! I pledge myself to the cause of Formis, rightful Queen of Formia. Formis, daughter of Doggo! What say you?” This time, as he tore up the correspondence, Doggo the queen?” The ant-man indicated that he could. “If she has inherited any of your character,” Myles continued, Doggo, No. 334-2-18, the only really humanlike ant-man whom Myles had ever known among the once dominant by a worker ant, whom he inaudibly directed to bring and here he was now, millions of miles away through space retiring on matted silver felting on the concrete floor of a Porovian ant-house. Such are the mutations “That is just what we finally decided to do,” the ant-man charged with treason to Yuri, whereupon two members of the council, whom I have won over to the cause of my daughter, will raise the objection that Yuri is not our king. This will be the signal for the proclaiming of Queen Formis. If you will waive counsel the trial can take place to-morrow.”

<question>:
Given that Formians are naturally governed by an ant queen, how does King Yuri manage to hold his position as their leader?

<options>:
A The ant queen was both killed by and usurped by King Yuri. He perpetually inhabits the power vacuum left by her absence.
B The ant queen was killed in hand to hand combat by the Cupian uprising, leaving a power vacuum that King Yuri took advantage of.
C The ant queen died during the Formian escape over the boiling sea, and so King Yuri occupies the power vacuum left by he queen’s absence.
D The ant queen died of old age, and all other younger Formians have yet to give birth to a new queen. King Yuri will occupy the leadership position until such a birth occurs.

<answer>:

C