Help finding book about a huge spaceship taken over by some renegades/pirates

[cjenner]

Hi, my memory is very hazy but it's about a bunch of renegades that stumble across a huge deserted starship. This ship has an incredible computer that can transform objects. They first start using this 'computer' to terraform the inside of their ship, turning parts of it into habitable areas for the crew and then use it to create some autonomous fighters which they use to defend their ship and capture a load of other smaller vessels until they have a large fleet of different ships.

They eventually learn that they can use this computer to transform the way they look themselves and they use this to launch a series of raids down on planet surfaces. They may also have an alien shapeshifter or shapechanger with them that infiltrated their ranks and then ultimately worked with them.

Really hoping you can help me find this book or possibly series, the search for it has been driving me crazy for quite some time now and I'm not sure what to try next.

@dannymcg you seem to be a font of all knowledge when it comes to these old books, any thoughts on this one?

Thanks!!

 

[Danny McG]

Possibly it could be..

Tuf Voyaging by G.R.R Martin

 

[hitmouse]

Possibly it could be..

Tuf Voyaging by G.R.R Martin

That was my original thought. The scene is appropriate but the plot sounds different. Terrific book though.

 

[geosmithredux]

Though they are in my stack I have not read the books yet but could it be the Tabitha Jute series by Colin Greenland? The three books in the series are "Take Back Plenty", "Seasons of Plenty", and "Mother of Plenty".

 

[PaulMmn]

Tuf Voyaging (I had read some of the stories in ANALOG magazine, but tracked down the book!) is about a search for and finding of an ancient ship of the Ecology Service. It's BIG! It has cell libraries and growing tanks suitable for cloning almost any kind of creature you can imagine! T-Rex? Sea monsters?

Tuf, Our Hero, owns a small trading ship and is hired by a band of temporary allies (5-8 or so) to pilot them on their Quest for the Ecology Service Ship.

Spoiler

In-fighting between the 'allies' results in Tuf ending up 'owning' the ship.

--Paul E Musselman

 

[monkeypooper]

Some of it sounds like Robert Reeds Marrow series