Universe is a science fiction video game by Omnitrend Software. It was written by Thomas Carbone and Bill Leslie in valFORTH on an Atari 800. It was Omnitrend's first game.
The story starts off on the planet Axia within the Local Group, a settlement that took place centuries ago thanks to the discovery of an alien hyperspace booster. This technology allowed the Local Group to be settled with supplies being sent from Earth using the booster.
However the supplies have stopped arriving and the player must now search for a second hyperspace booster that was reported in the area. The game starts with a loan from the bank to finance a spaceship to be used to find this second booster. The player then travels to different planets and engages in trading, mining or even piracy.
Source: Wikipedia, "Universe (computer game)," available under the CC-BY-SA License.