NARRATOR: Celgate, two light-hours from the bustle of the Celeschul system interior...
BRISTLECONE: Mistress, a word?
PARA: Certainly, Bristlecone.
BRISTLECONE: My last refit included a teraport, but I've never used it for interstellar travel.
PARA: Are you worried that it won't work?
BRISTLECONE: Not at all. We tested it out here at Celgate during the shakedown.
PARA: If you're confident in the jump, you must be worried about something else. Talk to me, Bristlecone.
BRISTLECONE: I am six hundred years old, and I've never left the Celeschul system.
In all those centuries the occasion simply never arose. I blockaded the wormgate three times, but never actually passed through it.
Now, with Celgate dark and the age of the teraport upon us, I am about to transit further from home than I've ever been.
I suspect I shall soon travel further still, and that for... various reasons I shall never be able to go home again.
PARA: Your anxiety is a common one. People get it all the time.
You're focusing on a single set of superficial changes and worrying that you'll change beyond recognition. The fact is that you'll just be you again in a new place, and with new friends.
PARA: Any time you want to talk about it, I'm here for you. I've seen all kinds of quirks in A.I.
BRISTLECONE: In my spare cycles, I track the genealogy and progeny of everyone who has ever traveled within my hull.
PARA: That's number 98 in the Ferro-Swedin Catalog. It usually gets cured with a restraining order.