Life Probe

The Makers had been searching for the secret to faster-than-light travel since before humanity invented agriculture. The instruments for their search were the life probes, sentient machines that scoured the universe looking for intelligent life.

One such machine encountered twenty-first-century Earth and offered the human race all the science of the Makers if only they would help in the quest.

Humanity's response to the life probe's plea was typical: They started a war.