Maybe the carrier ought to behave like a human captain and go roving for fighters.
It's simple enough to make the ship go and pickup fighters, isn't it? Even better, invent a new class of transport: "Military Supply Transport" and have
this go around collecting fighters from planets and then delivering them to carriers near the 'front lines'. That would save the carriers from having to travel out of the way themselves. They could be sent to militarily useful locations immediately.