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

<passage>:
, as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. 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. time," said the voice lightly. "When he saw that it was hopeless, he preferred suicide to defeat, and took his ship into the Sun." A short But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the crew. It was a subdued excitement men and women, they him?" voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might lie at the long journey's end. For the spent and the holds became radioactively safe, the crew had spread out from its original cramped quarters. Now the interstellar ship was little more than a hollow shell. them with an impassive countenance, and announced quietly, "We've sighted Earth." A feverish buzz arose identified it—no more." But this time the clamor was not to be settled. People pressed round each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. worry. Things may have changed—but we'll manage." But his face had hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear He left her and began to climb the stairway again. Someone switched off the lights, and a charmed whisper ran through the big room as the Captain Llud found Navigator Gwar Den looking as smug as the cat Llud nodded curt approval, remarking, "Probably we'll be intercepted Llud shook his head slowly. "Who knows? We don't know whether any then he sat idle, alone with his thoughts. The ship's automatic mechanisms had scant need of tending most hopeful of the expeditions—and its captain had been a good friend found himself wishing that he could find some back-breaking task for everyone on board, himself included, to fill up the hours that remained. of Llud's, nine hundred years ago.... He growled, "What happened to 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 months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while Bemusedly Llud got to his feet and stood surveying a cabinet with the size of Jupiter, and like Jupiter utterly unfit to support a colony. "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the 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 and transcendent effort—the effort of Egypt that built the pyramids, or the war efforts of the nations in the last great conflicts of the 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 limited, but the price is a deadly frustration, because growth alone is its decline with the knowledge that its race went onward and upward, expanding limitlessly into the Universe.... "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 longing.... 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 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 Llud sighed. He still couldn't say just why he had given the order to 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 then felt a curious detached relief at the knowledge that after all these years he could still respond quickly and smoothly to a crisis. Llud hesitated, said, "All right. Come along and keep out of the way." There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. The shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them most of them breathless. To a man they looked appeal at Captain Knof Llud. "Well?" he snapped. "What are they doing?" would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their was intentionally operated at one half of one per cent efficiency to provide the illusion of Earthly gravitation. One of the officers said shakily, "It's as if they've been lying in wait for us. But why on Earth—" bored steadily on through space, decelerating. Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or change course. There was nowhere else to go and too little fuel left if there had been apart. Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was conquer. It became evident, too, that the bombardment was being kept up by a constant arrival of fresh attackers, while others raced away into space, presumably returning to base to replenish their ammunition. That argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind it. we're having to shed energy, the fuel will be gone in six or eight hours." "We're under the psychological disadvantage," said the captain, "of not knowing why we're being attacked." Knof Jr. burst out, spluttering slightly with the violence of a hadn't made himself clear, "In a fight, if a guy gets mad he starts swinging wild and then you nail him." Smiles splintered the ice of tension. Captain Llud said, "Maybe you've ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and querying again, "Who are you ?" There was no answer. The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. Those outside were squandering vastly greater amounts of energy in the effort to batter down its defenses, but converting that energy into harmless gravitic impulses was costing the nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of his ship. ," interrupted a harshly crackling voice with a strange accent, " and pleading will do you no good. " him once more. He snapped, "But who are you?" and the words blended absurdly with the same words in his own voice on the still repeating tape. He snapped off the record

<question>:
What characteristics best describe Captain Llud in the present part of the story?

<options>:
A Jubilant, humorous, and jaded
B Scared, quiet, and humorous
C Jolly, excited, and tired
D Tired, defeated, and confused

<answer>:

D