Darkness and Claws — David Collins

In the first book, On Mars, Jason stumbled across the escape pod to a 3,500-year-old derelict spacecraft. The AI for the ship then informed Jason that he was now the Captain of a massive alien Starship due to him having traces of alien DNA. That 'should' have been good news. But the bad news was that Jason's DNA has an additional trait, one that shouldn't be there... The last time anyone had one of the forbidden DNA traits, it started the war that left the ship derelict. To fight the aliens that want him dead, Jason must become something from their nightmares...This second book starts with the ultimate bad hair day (with fangs). The ship finally had a full crew and outfitted with the most creative weapons Earth had managed to develop. They take off to their first interstellar destination, a Mauron (Gorgon) shipyard that turns out to be run more like a penal colony. While their ship is in the repair bay, they get attacked by a state-of-the-art Felinog battleship. The Felinog were not counting on the unusual Earth weapons that had been added and some very creative tactics. Who is the Darkness? Who are the Claws? Where do Jason and his ship fit into their conflict? What new secrets hide beneath the strange ship they find in a world of darkness? Then the Felinog tries again with a different weapon. Jason has no choice but to fight fire, with bigger, nastier fire, but things do not go as planned...