Trimble did contribute. Let me clarify who did what on that cover . . .

Originally, when we were first going to release DSR back in 2001 or so, Ryan drew the spaceship for the cover. We handed that picture off to Ray and asked him to build a cover around it. He added in the title, and all kinds of crazy computer readings and such.

When Jason rewrote DSR for release last year, we looked at the old cover. Ryan's spaceship looked good, but it was in black and white. I asked ace cover colorist Jimmy McKinney (who colored the Qerth covers) if he could color it. Turns out one of Jimmy's hobbies is creating 3D computer models of spaceships, though, so he offered to do a lot more than just color it. I checked with Ryan to make sure we had his blessing, and we did, so Jimmy rendered the ship with his computer.

Then Ray took the newly rendered ship and added in a new background, new computer details, etc.

So Jimmy deserves most of the credit for the image, but it's still Ryan's design. And if you look down in the bottom, you'll see Ryan's original drawing.

Okay, I made at least one mistake in the above, where I said Ray added in the background. Apparently Jimmy did the ship and the stars, which I had forgotten. Ray added in all the computer readings and the title.

So I asked Jimmy what he used, and he had this to say:
Lightwave 3d, version 8
and yes, it was done on the same software. The stars were painted in a paint program.