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

<passage>:
Quest III Quest III drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. They had grown sated with the sight of wonders—of multiple systems of giant stars, of nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. It was a subdued excitement Quest III was coming home the sun ahead was Quest III's sighted Earth." A feverish buzz arose She drew an uncertain breath and released it in a faint sigh. "I don't know. It's good that Earth's still there." She was thinking, he judged remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... He said, with a touch of tolerant amusement, "What did you think might have happened to Earth? After all, it's only been nine hundred years." worry. Things may have changed—but we'll manage." But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat of the other Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. It's possible—not likely, though—that something has happened to break notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending Knof Llud found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. he couldn't persuade himself to kill time that way. He could go down and watch the screens, or to the family apartment where he might find Lesra and the children—but somehow he didn't want to do that either. He felt empty, drained—like his ship. As the Quest III's fuel stores and the hope of success in man's mightiest venture had dwindled, so the strength had gone out of him. Now the last fuel compartment was almost empty and Captain Knof Llud felt tired and old. Perhaps, he thought, he was feeling the weight of his nine hundred Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older than when the voyage had begun. That was the foreshortening along the time axis of a space ship approaching the speed of light. Weeks and months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while expedition, a segment of his life and of history. He might add that to the ship's official log and its collections of scientific data, as a report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were confident than he knew it was now. "One light-day out from Procyon, the thirty-third day by ship's time since leaving Earth. "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the Centaurus Expedition's failure, hoped more than we cared to admit. If Procyon had possessed a habitable planet, we could have returned after an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. "It is cheering to note that the crew seems only more resolute. We go humanity's dream, lives in us and in the ship forever...." Presently Knof Llud switched off that younger voice of his and leaned back, an ironic smile touching his lips. That fervent idealism seemed remote and foreign to him now. The fanfares of departure must still have been ringing in his ears. "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably and its two sisters, the immense expenditure of time and labor and energy stores that went into them, left Earth's economy drained and exhausted. Only once in a long age does mankind rise to such a selfless twentieth century. "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are the result of a population's outgrowing its room and resources, and therefore signalize the beginning of the end. Population can be but Earth could at least go into its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" Knof Llud shook his head sorrowfully and took off the spool. That was from the time when he had grown philosophical after the first disappointments. He frowned thoughtfully, choosing one more spool that was only four years old. The recorded voice sounded weary, yet alive with a strange Quest III Quest III achieve a velocity that would take us there without dying of senility of aging too greatly. It would be a one-way journey—even if enough fuel remained, there would be little point in returning to Earth after more than forty thousand years. By then our civilization certainly, and perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. phase, and before we can get back it may have collapsed completely from overpopulation. "Why go back, then with the news of our failure? Why not forget about Earth and go on to Omega Centauri? What use is quixotic loyalty to a decree five thousand years old, whose makers are dead and which may be forgotten back there? "Would the crew be willing? I don't know—some of them still show signs of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that was once 'home' has probably been swept away.... "It doesn't matter. Today I gave orders to swing the ship." he sat for a time with head resting in his hands, staring into nothing. The memory of that fierce impulse to go on still had power to shake him. A couple of lines of poetry came into his head, as he read them Llud sighed. He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to turn back. The stars had claimed his heart—but he was still a part of Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able to alter that. He wondered if there would still be a quiet stream and a green shady place beside it where a death-weary man, relieved at last of Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the glittering constellations, far away, out of reach.... He wasn't sure he would want to do that, though. it seemed to falter one moment in flight. Quest III's practical purposes invulnerable. Just as he took his finger off the button that opened the door, the "Sound the alarm. Emergency stations." He had said it automatically, then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three short buzzes and repeat, ringing through all the great length of the Quest III's he had heard his father's words. "Something's happened," he judged with deadly twelve-year-old Quest III Quest III's Quest III Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or Quest III's Quest III constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. That it. Elsuz Llug, the gravitic engineer, calculated dismally, "At the rate we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." noticed it." "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. Then, seeing that he hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." Quest III Quest III it had already involuntarily told him a couple of things—that it was not Quest III's ponderous and unswerving progress toward Earth had somehow frightened it. So it was trying to frighten them. He shoved those facts back for future use. Just now he had to know

<question>:
How would you describe Captain Llud's character transformation across the entire Quest III journey?

<options>:
A He was excited at first and became jaded over time.
B He was consistently excited throughout because they found a new habitable planet early on in their mission.
C His only priority was taking care of his family, so the mission's success/failure didn't really impact him much.
D He was never really excited about his job, but he became excited at the thought of returning home.

<answer>:

A