Okay, I wanted to wait until others with more knowledge answered, as I am unfamiliar with Mass Effect (though I do have the
trilogy of Mass Effect novels the game's creator wrote on my TBR).
Anyway, isn't
David Brin's Uplift Saga starting with
Sundiver sort of what you are looking for? (Please forgive Sundiver's awful current cover. The book is a classic, inspite of the current cover looking like it is rusting on the shelf.)