The 2,000 Year War — David Collins

The war between different alien groups lasted for over 2,300 years. But Keith Robinson didn't know anything about that. He assumed that the job he had applied for was to work on an Arctic research ship. He thought that he would be assembling parts for upgraded sonar buoys. He thought wrong.The AI on the derelict spaceship was open to lying if that could finally get the ship repaired. Hiring a repair technician from the primitive planet Earth was a crazy plan. And even crazier, it worked.After salvaging an alien ship, Keith now finds himself the ship's owner. But something is deadly wrong in the depths of space. With the help of a temperamental AI, Keith then manages to rescue several alien refugees from stasis pods on damaged ships.They head off to one more promising location to try, a supposedly minor mining station so insignificant that they had hoped the war had missed it.They were out of luck.