this idea is just great and actually extendable. why only making the NPC vanishing? calling them for support or to company your patrol would be nice as well.
wouldn't it be nice to control the stations as well? like making players temporary hostile to your base when you want to deny docking rights.
like you notice a smuggler full of cardi near manhattan, but he is our of CD range and heading right to manhattan planet. would be just awesome to call the manhattan flight control and deny this guy the docking rights.
or the latest incident at freeport 9, all trouble caused by a captain who ignored the zoners around the base and docked while all zoners explicit denied that.
to have buyable pilots would be the cherry on the top, but than we need to make our own faction npc not demanding them from us.