I've recently dived into StarSector, a game I purchased years ago as it sounded promising but it didn't really grab me.
It is a fun little indie game in the vein of you start with very little (depending on start chosen I guess) and trade/pirate/smuggle/explore/bounty hunt your way up to a fleet or colony. I haven't made it to a colony yet, but it has been fun thus far.
Graphics are minimal obviously, so it is kind of a "story" that you make yourself kind of experience. Would recommend checking it out if you liked space games like X3. Pretty niche game overall.
https://fractalsoftworks.com/