I wonder if anyone else gets the same rush of guilt I do when they trade 100 crew for the sphere... it's terrible. and then, when you get back to the starbase! *sob*
I did it that way my first time through the game. It made me feel dirty, especially when shortly after I was told that I had lost 1000 crew and that the cost was going to rise. I felt bad allover again when I went to get the Utwig bomb and the Druuge told me that I was the same as they were.