Sounds familiar. I never read it, but I saw it listed and discussed in the past.
Sounds like one I read but can't remember the name. The original aliens were spiders but they transferred from from one manufactured body to another. The human MC always referred to himself as a monkey. Later he hooked up with a con artist whos species looked like a slug.
One of Artie's stories sounds like the spider/slug epic. There were some spacegoing otters in there too.
One of Artie's stories sounds like the spider/slug epic. There were some spacegoing otters in there too.
Artie's stories can be found via the Wayback Machine, at http://web.archive.org/web/20111121131633/http://www.asstr.org/~artie/index.html
The original aliens were spiders but they transferred from from one manufactured body to another. The human MC always referred to himself as a monkey. Later he hooked up with a con artist whos species looked like a slug.
That's definitely Artie's 'Time of Arrival', can be found at
http://stuff.greenberg.org/artie/tdoa.html
The ship he joins was kicked from hyperspace by a trap (but the otter engineer in a spider shell beat the trap by overloading the drive, at the cost of the main drive and his life) and the ship AI did animate some drones, but the ship didn't get boarded and the surviving crew remained crew so this may not be the one the OP is after. In Artie's story, the spider crew 'had the curiosity of two boxes of rocks'
I think Quantum Mechanic authored some stories along this vein, but not sure where to find them today.
I think Quantum Mechanic authored some stories along this vein, but not sure where to find them today.
Quantum Mechanic has an ASSTR web page, last updated back in 2009; doesn't look like a match, storywise. http://www.asstr.org/~QuantumMechanic/index.html