Currently knock-out is worse than useless because it can easily lead to situations where a person you knocked out immediately becomes re-hostile upon awakening and also makes all the surrounding neutral NPCs hostile.
My suggestion is that the knock-out mechanism should result in dialogue similar to that of an enemy who you stole from:
When they wake up, they come to you and you can select a variety of dialogue/checks to prevent them from going hostile.
Specific notable enemies (two Absolute people, Minthara, Kagha) could have non-generic dialogue where you could question them/get a 2nd attempt at resolving the differences between you and them.
-intimidate the two Absolute people into silence or deceive them into believing that, though you're from the ship, you're on the side of the Absolute
-persuade/intimidate Minthara to tell you more about the Absolute's plans/ identify the NPC important for taking the overland route
-persuade Kagha to be less Kagha/feel remorse
