Alex.. You're the helpless trader, he/she is the pirate able to kill you.. Don't want blown up, do what they tell you to, to the letter. Don't follow their instructions, and you're liable to be destroyed. I've had traders caught with a full cargo of Gold in New Tokyo, and told them to drop their cargo.. They'd givecash me 2mil. So I givecash it back, give them one more warning to drop it, and if they don't, I blow them up. Yes, they paid me. But I didn't tell them to pay me, I told them to drop the cargo. They didn't, they get blown up.
This situation wasn't any different. The pirate gave you an order, you didn't abide by it, the pirate blew you up. Common sequence of events. And once you started getting shot, you should've just dropped it.