Ceres Star — Ronnie G. Anderson

Ceres Star (53,331 words) is the fifth novel in the current six novel Reptoid series. The Ceres Star is a massive city-ship that rescues hundreds of thousands of humans preserved in hibernation pods when the three hive ships that they were on were destroyed believing that the ships contained Reptoids and not humans. In the course of their recovery it is discovered that these reptilian "Snakes" as they are called, put on a cocoon when they die and shed their skin. A Reptoid is what emerges - oops No good deed ever goes unpunished