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In the episode (actually "Interface") Geordi says about how the ship has "over three hundred people onboard".
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Oops, double fault! Sorry about that...
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If the Hera is Nebula-Class she seems very understaffed. However one explanation could be, that since they were just on a routine courier mission they were operating with just a skeleton crew.
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Or then a largely Vulcan crew handles things more efficiently than a human one...
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Perhaps the Saratoga was a survey ship, not intended for frontline combat and as such permitted to have family members onboard
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Quite possible - but we lack explicit evidence that dedicated combat vessels would shun families, or more exactly, non-contributing (civilian, underage, overage) family members. And Picard's mission didn't appear to be a "limited" one in any sense; the fact that he had "passengers" aboard seemed more a reflection of the zeitgeist than of mission profile or ship design.
Timo Saloniemi