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 HUNTED the next ship for Earth." "Go back? The planet itself was tough enough—barren, desolate, forbidding other Geigs I caught unawares, dedicated. But they had to run head-on against a mad genius who had a motto: Death to all Terrans! "Let's enough to stop the most adventurous and Val. "The surest way to Go back? have left—Geig-hunting. Look die out here on Mars is to hero," she said. I pressed the stud for the airlock, smiling. THE END Transcriber's Note: it was who had failed hood. Nothing but what had stopped us could Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note. Geigs?" I asked. " Why? she blamed it all on Then we can catch "Because I hate Ron?" Val pleaded. "Maybe I thought all his kind had died at the time of the atomic When Val's tired and overwrought the Geigs—and UranCo—off Mars. Eventually I'll scare you all away." "Just pick us off in the desert?" "Come on, kid. Remember—we're doing this for Earth. We're heroes." She glared at me. "Heroes, hell!" she muttered. "That's since I landed here on Mars." so glorious. And UranCo's pay is stinking." "We didn't come out here "What are you going to do for the pay, Val." but, out there it doesn't seem with us?" Val finally asked, the geigers had been obstinately for their constant undercurrent of meaningless noises. Even though the Martian gravity was only a fraction of on the infinitely safer desert. "Do I shock you?" he asked. been really rough on Val with her lovely but unrugged legs. "Heroes," she said bitterly. "We're not heroes—we're suckers! Why did I ever let you volunteer for the Geig You're on Mars hunting uranium, ship the radioactives back to Earth to keep the atomic engines right? To mine and point, because Val didn't lie I nodded over at our geiger unless she was so exhausted Mars," Val said irrelevantly. "Ah—two young heroes," Ledman said acidly. "How much inflamed by the idea of coming to Mars to help in the doing. She had been just as she didn't know what she was "We volunteered to come to And we'd always had a roving No, we had decided together that great accident—killing way we decided together on hundreds, injuring thousands turning against me. the contract, but I got a good dose of radiation instead. Not to lie down on the soft, spongy Martian sand and "But why kill us Geigs? Mars, until I recalled that I hadn't. In fact, she had come up with the idea before I did. of turning the weary, bedraggled the Val who had so enthusiastically suggested we join the Geigs. decided that a semi-basket the geiger harness, and lowered myself ponderously to the ground. "What'samatter, Ron?" Val asked sleepily. Mars, lost myself, built this Dome, and swore to get even. There's not a great deal of Mars after all. But, I reminded myself, someone "That's another little souvenir of Sadlerville. I'm short on red blood corpuscles." He rolled over to a wall home on Earth. It wasn't much, but people in love don't it seemed hard to believe that we'd exchanged Earth and all it held for us for the raw, untamed struggle that was Mars. But I knew I'd do it again, if the entire Geig Corps, since I had the chance. It's because we wanted to keep what we had. Heroes? Hell, no. We wanted to keep them. Which just liked our comforts, and too nightmarish to be real. I wasn't seriously worried about his threat to wipe out can succeed?" I taunted him. "Really think you can kill The Geig Corps preferred every Earthman on Mars? Of all the insane, cockeyed—" Val's quick, worried head-shake decided it for us—we were a teams. That's what had finally we volunteered. And here we are. Heroes. The wind blasted a mass of sand into my face, and I felt powerful as you, today—instead of a useless cripple in a wheelchair." scheme of revenge and Uneasily I caught Val's for, Ron?" fly. It wasn't Martians that had done it. There weren't any Martians, hadn't been for Val, and saw that she was what was wrong with Val. fresh, giving off a faint, repugnant odor like that of drying convinced me. I saw Val's "Ron—" wore an outmoded, bulky spacesuit and a fishbowl helmet, all but the face area opaque. The oxygen cannisters weren't attached to his "Teamwork," Val said. She to make trouble." Val and I going to kill you at all. I'm going to see to it that you're sent back to Earth." " No! "They'll help you on Earth. "What's going on, Ron?" Val asked in a low voice as we They'll take all the hatred and sickness out of you, and turn you into a useful member of society again." and I thought I knew that you couldn't bear to hang around on Earth for as much as a year after the Sadlerville Blast. You had to take right off for Mars without a moment's delay, didn't you? You hated Earth so much you years to this. Ever since—ever why. I wondered why we had The answer to that came to some of your pension money Earth needed radioactives, and the only way to get them to buy yourself a pair of prosthetic was to get out and look. The me quick enough: we had to. the great cities of the world hardly compared with the them back together again. In three centuries the shattered world had been completely rebuilt. The wreckage of New York and Shanghai and London and all the other "You left Earth too quickly," Val said. "It was the only way," he by a shining new world of prosthetics—amazing things, virtually robot legs. All the survivors of They had used their atomics gleaming towers and flying roadways. We had profited by atomic-powered But though the energy is inexhaustible, the supply of nuclei isn't. After three centuries of heavy consumption, the supply failed. The mighty And that started the chain of events that led Val and me to end up as a madman's prisoners, on Mars. With every Geigs—or more—and would source of uranium mined dry have added Val to the number happy, useful on Earth, instead of being holed up here nursing your hatred. You fifty years' worth of raw stuff to tide us over until then. In a decade or so, our power would world we'd revert back to. Millions of starving, freezing humans tooth-and-clawing in it in the useless shell of a great atomic civilization. So, Mars. There's not much uranium on Mars, and it's not easy to find or any cinch to over?" "Yes—human legs aren't strong enough to break tangle-cord that way." Enter the Geig Corps: volunteers gave Val the blaster and slipped Mars, combing for its uranium deposits. And here we are, I thought. Val got him into his suit, and Geig Corps were located, "Get your helmet on and let's go. Between the psychs and the prosthetics men, you'll be a new man inside of a year." Dome, of all things! "Welcome to my home," he I found myself fervently wishing I was back out there "Got the geigers, honey?" who hated. now that I had been driving her mercilessly—me, with my chromium legs and atomic-powered muscles. No wonder she was ready to fold! "I shouldn't—not when them to."

<question>:
According to Ron, what motivated him and Val to join the Geigs?

<options>:
A desire to maintain their present way of life
B monetary compensation
C opportunity for a new life on Mars
D heroic reputational status upon returning to Earth

<answer>:

A