Failsafe — David Mack

When a cultural observation probe malfunctions and crash-lands on a pre-warp world, the S.C.E. is sent in to destroy it before the technology falls into the hands of a civilization not prepared for it. Unfortunately, when Commander Gomez and her team arrive, they find that the device has already been captured by terrorist forces who intend to reverse-engineer the technology into a weapon that will change the balance of power on their world to deadly effect!
Now it's a race against time for the S.C.E. to find and destroy the probe before it's too late!