Crew members.
I think it would be cool to have npc crew members.

These Crew members would have a couple stats that could be leveled. Like pilot skill and turret skill etc.
You could have as many crew members as you can afford to pay, but could only have like 3 actively doing something.

Crew members could man turrets, or be sent to fly a ship to another station. A crew member could bring you a ship from another station only if they were already active and in a ship. I'm on the fence on buying/loading cargo. These ships will be Identified as yours and susceptible to destruction by anyone.
Inactive Crew Members could be carried as cargo and thus traded between players.

-1

This is not WoT

I don't like the pilot or cargo ideas, but I do like the turret part.