SpaceSimCentral

So I just started playing the game. I've been dabbling in Elite: Dangerous and I wanted to check out its roots. Here's the thing. I just finished that race to Ghandi. Yay! Used my winnings to buy medicine. When I fly to Soholia I ALWAYS get attacked by pirates. No matter how many times I load, no matter how fast I try to fly through, no matter what, I get targeted. I can't fight back. I press T to target hostiles. It does nothing. I click the little red targeting reticle. Nothing. I can't fire missiles. All I can do is manually aim lasers and hope for the best. What am I doing wrong? What can I possibly do? I am totally stumped and can not progress any further.

It's been an age since I played this and I can't remember offhand but don't you have to click on the icon to fire the missile. Also make sure you have some missile on board.