Natives

[Windborne]

One risk might be the evolution of the "Pirate races" talked about in a previous post, with their own ai, the natives take your ships, and modify their own tech to learn boarding, suddenly they are attacking your fleets and planets, co-opting them into their own little parasite-empire, entirely reliant on pillage from higher races bacause they are unable to build their own ships or even really repair yours!