Oh, only wanted them to "chatter" to player, not to each other -- that would be nice but too much work. Hmm, ID... for the player that would be the mothership right? That's how quests seem to trigger - if you fly to the target area with a fighter nothing happens.

Little things like traders greeting you, pirates telling you to stay out of their way, mercenaries bragging how much they made in the last job, the MSF warning you not to idle around busy flight lanes. If cannot detect relationship (friendly/neutral/etc) is ok, simply stick to using neutral greetings.