NPC should ask to join crew when nowhere else to go

Another angle is being able to have a character join with a faction, Pirates for example.
I had a play-through on medium where I lost a crew member early on, so I had three people in a gradually expanding ship, mining and stripping hulks. They made it nearly to the end of the galaxy, always searching for more crew but never finding any. Eventually they took to trying to capture pirates but it always turned out we got captured and had to pay ransom - which was ok because we were filthy rich by then. However attrition took it's toll and eventually there was only one of us left.
The only option was for them to go back to their ship alone, continuing the hopeless search for company. it would have been nice to be able to end the game with them choosing to join the pirates.