I am sure this has been postulated, but I couldn't find a thread talking about it in a quick search. The generally quoted figure for the fighter compliment of the Hakaga is 288. The quotation in Fleet Action is "three eighties and six eights of strike craft and fighters." Thinking that "eighties" is in base ten it would be 288, but if "eighties" is in base eight it would instead be 240.
It would be like saying "three hundreds and five tens" which we would assume is 350 and then having a person accustomed to base 16 incorrectly assume that by "hundreds" we meant 100 in base 16, interpretting the number as 818. Just as "three hundreds and five tens" would clearly mean to us 350, I would argue that the Kilrathi would clearly mean 240 by "three eighties and six eights."
It would be like saying "three hundreds and five tens" which we would assume is 350 and then having a person accustomed to base 16 incorrectly assume that by "hundreds" we meant 100 in base 16, interpretting the number as 818. Just as "three hundreds and five tens" would clearly mean to us 350, I would argue that the Kilrathi would clearly mean 240 by "three eighties and six eights."