Previous Next

Flying freighters across the Parvin frontier is no picnic, particularly when you're carrying perishable goods and have to end off swarms of pirates. My problem is I work for the Psi-5 Trading Company and I've got to get a load of Nucliarc to Kozzar-7. It's only 120 parsecs and it's 12 million on delivery but it's not going to be easy.

This crate they call a freighter has me on the bridge but I need somebody, or something, in engineering to get the crate moving; in navigation, to make sure we don't run into something; in scanners, to look out for pirates; in weapons, to blast any unwelcome visitors, and a good repair man in case things don't go according to plan.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of crew around but I need a *good* crew. I'm down to a shortlist of six for each job and can even punch up a record telling me what they've done and any strengths or weaknesses, but how do you choose between Boris, a 47-year-old Jargonian, a robot and a pink alien called Yeela? Whoever I choose, I'm bound to get it wrong.

Eventually, I get a crew together and, at last, I'm ready to go. The first job is to get in touch with engineering and let the guy know the priorities for energy as it's no good Yeela trying to fire the blasters if the engineer has channeled all the ship's power through his hi-fi! Then it's contact repairs, to make sure he knows what to repair. Then it's onto navigation and weapons, to make sure they're ready for any pirates but don't go attacking any innocent spacecraft. Then pandemonium breaks out.

My plans all come to nothing as the undisciplined crew go their own way *and* the pirates get going. I try to get navigation to get us out using evasive manoeuvres and hope that repairs can keep everything together while weapons tries to fend off the marauding maniacs.

From a state of controlled panic things rapidly shift to the blind variety and both cargo and ship are lost, but, with a bit of luck, I'll have learnt something about the crew - enough to give me a fighting chance next time!

Then, at the end of a mission, I get a bill. It will be several games before I'll be able to pay this little lot off and get back into the black. I don't know when the Psi-5 Trading Company will ever actually make money. Still, it's good fun trying to.