Just a thought: for shifts that we have sufficient numbers for a sixth ship, what if we use, say, the Hunter as a cadet training vessel? The ship could run around and do scans and such without being too critical to the mission’s completion while the cadets have a relatively stress-free environment for training. Since we won’t always have the numbers, on shifts with fewer people the cadets could get the regular crews’ experience, too. It could also be a chance to train and test the capabilities of potential command officers.
Edit: Another thought:
Awhile ago I remember Garion and a few other people wanting to have a fighter squadron. It might make sense to have a sim now and then to train everyone as fighter pilots in case the division is assigned a carrier for a short time for some random mission. This could be potential fodder for the GM’s to have a mess around with in the future.
