Having returned to Crossfire after a rather long absence, I redid the campaign, did the cool new side mission and explored the new region, and have settled down, in my well-equipped Haidar for now, to doing some itinerant trading and thorough (re)exploration.
Now, I know that it's unkind to laugh at others' misfortune.
While investigating wrecks in Coalition space, though, I found a couple of back story explanations that had me chuckling despite my best intentions.
It's difficult, for example, not to laugh at the hubris that drove a couple of Xeno pilots to take on the entire Coalition by themselves, with entirely predictable results.
But I found it impossible to avoid laughing after a careful investigation of a larger wreck elsewhere in Coalition space.
At first, when I learned that the ill-fated crew had run into trouble while chasing random scanner echoes, I felt sorry for them.
When I...ah...liberated their cargo--"looted" has such a negative sound--I became considerably less sympathetic.
They had a full load of cardamine, and I'd be willing to bet that it was sampling their cargo that led the crew to see/hear spurious scanner echoes.
Aide from the possible profits to be made from further investigation of wrecks, I now have another motivation: some of the stories behind them are pretty funny.
Sorry ….. a new, new beginning, ……. sorry …… maybe a new, new, NEW beginning. 
