Swords fail in Sci-Fi? The Jedi/Sith in Star Wars fail? Dune anyone (they used rapiers and knives) fail too? Even the Klingons in Star Trek? A lot of others I can't remember right now?... I'm not sure but I think I even saw Rheinland or Bretonian NPCs (guards!?) in Freelancer (in the bars) carrying some long blade kind of officer saber thing.
I think no one would like a stray projectile or beam hitting anything too volatile inside a spaceship or puncture the hull. Decompression would be extremely unpleasant, same with sucking vacuum if you survive the decompression or explosion in the first place, not to mention that no one would like to blow up the ship up. Not much sense in boarding it in the first place then.
As for the guy being green, the color of skin isn't final but let's say that Darkstar granted him/her the wish but added some genetic engeneering of his own (btw, found the link).:P
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor