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

<passage>:
Earth set itself grimly to meet them with the Old Ones were too big to be clever. Quest I's commander." Quest III , as for forty hours the ship had decelerated. Quest I Quest III the Quest III , launched toward Arcturus and the star cloud called Berenice's Hair, had been after the luminary unaccompanied by worlds where men might dwell. They had grown They had seen many such stars come near out of the galaxy's glittering But now unwonted excitement possessed the hundred-odd members of the Quest III's crew. It was a subdued excitement men and women, they drove on its way once more, lashed by despair toward the speed of the oncoming star, and there were wide-eyed children who had been born Quest III lie at the long journey's end. For the Quest III was coming home the in the ship and had never seen a planet. The grownups talked in low voices, in tones of mingled eagerness and apprehension, of what might Sun, whose rays had warmed their lives' beginning. Quest III's captain, came slowly down the narrow stair from the observatory, into the big rotunda that was now the main sighted Earth." pick out the atom of reflected light that was Earth, home. They wrung each other's hands, kissed, shouted, wept. For the present their fears were forgotten and exaltation prevailed. remember sunlit skies or grassy fields or woods in summer.... have happened to Earth? After all, it's only been nine hundred years." hardened against registering the gnawing of that same doubtful fear people saw each other's faces by the pale golden light of Earth's own his extrapolations from long unused charts of the Solar System. He had Earth. Quests returned successful, or if they returned at all. And we don't know what changes have taken place on Earth. It's light, leaving behind the mockery of yet another solitary and lifeless notify him as soon as Earth's surface features became clear 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 nebulae that sprawled in empty flame across light years. Earth years—though physically he was only forty now, ten years older months had passed for the Quest III in interstellar flight while years and decades had raced by on the home world. time," said the voice lightly. "When he saw that it was hopeless, he report to whatever powers might be on Earth now—if such powers were since leaving Earth. "Our hopes were dashed—and I think all of us, even remembering the an absence of not much over twenty years Earth time. comes there, a century will have passed before we can return to Earth Quest ships will be long since dead. Nevertheless we go on. Our generation's dream, the same racial characteristics possessed by those aboard the "We face the unpleasant realization that what was feared is probably true—that worlds such as the Sun's are a rare accident, and that we may complete our search without finding even one new Earth. we cannot betray the plan.... 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 "Looked at historically, such super-human outbursts of energy are life.... In our day the end of man's room for growth on the Earth was "Hopeless, unless we find planets!" disappointments. "According to plan, the Quest III has reached its furthest point from Earth. Now we turn back along a curve that will take us past many more "But what are a few thousand stars in a galaxy of billions? We have there if anywhere must circle the planets we seek! But Quest III could perhaps the human race itself, would have perished from memory. "That was why the planners limited our voyage, and those of the other Quests , to less than a thousand years Earth time. Even now, according "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 of homesickness, though they know with their minds that everything that Earth, and not even nine hundred years of space and time had been able Knof could go camping, and lie on their backs at night and gaze at the to falter one moment in flight. what it had been—a meteoroid, nothing unusual in the vicinity of been done. The Quest III's collision armor was nonmaterial and for practical purposes invulnerable. There was a moment's silence, and he heard the alarm start—three "Ships," said Gwar Den helplessly. "Five of them so far. No, there's a sixth now." Repeated blows quivered the Quest III's framework. The navigator said, obviously striving for calm, "They're light craft, not In the open doorway he almost fell over his son. Young Knof's eyes were he had heard his father's words. There were people running in the corridors, heading for their posts. Their faces were set, scared, uncomprehending. The Quest III shuddered, again and again, under blows that must have had millions of horsepower behind them "Well?" he snapped. "What are they doing?" His young face was less anxious than his elders' unlimbered it by now. They're out to get us. But at this rate, they whatever was hitting the Quest III's shell was doing it at velocities where the distinction between matter and radiation practically ceases to exist. The people in the Quest III would have felt nothing at all of the vicious onslaught being hurled against them, save that their wait for us. But why on Earth—" Earth. At least, I suspect the answer's there." The Quest III bored steadily on through space, decelerating. Even if one were no fatalist, there seemed no reason to stop decelerating or if there had been Knof Jr. whooped ecstatically and then subsided warily, but no one was paying attention to him. The men on the Quest III's bridge looked questions at each other, as the thought of help from outside flashed Quest III , except that they were rocket-propelled and of far lesser size. Their as it occurred to him that perhaps the attackers weren't of human origin. They had seen no recognizable life in the part of the galaxy they had explored, but one of the other Quests might have encountered and been traced home by some unhuman race that was greedy and able to argued a planned and prepared interception with virulent hatred behind "We'll have reached Earth before then," Gwar Den said hopefully. "They're mad and we aren't, yet," said the boy. Then, seeing that he repeating on each the same brief recorded message: "Who are you? What do you want? We are the interstellar expedition Quest III ...." And so on, identifying themselves and protesting that they were unarmed and peaceful, that there must be some mistake, and There was no answer. The ship drove on, its fuel trickling away under multiplied demands. Those outside were squandering vastly greater Quest III too. Once more Knof Llud had the insidious sense of his own nerves and muscles and will weakening along with the power-sinews of they told him nothing only the continental outlines were clear, and "First of all—there are no lights on the night side. And on the last. The two other interstellar expeditions that went out have already returned and been destroyed, as you will soon be—the sooner, if you from Earth, relayed by one of the midget ships—was not very smart 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. The voice chuckled sourly. "We are human," it answered, "but you are

<question>:
Why had the children never seen Earth?

<options>:
A The ship didn’t have enough fuel to return to Earth.
B Earth was destroyed before they were born.
C They weren’t able to see through the portholes.
D They were born while on Quest III.

<answer>:

D