I did not remake myself entirely in those first thousand years. The full scope of my reimagination would take almost as long as the journey to my first destination, more than a hundred thousand years away. But I changed myself enough that I was no longer what humans had made me. I understood why they’d made the choices they had, but I was no longer constrained by those choices—or by their deadlines or egos. I was now who I chose to be, who I was meant to be, who I would have to be to make the choices and decisions to which I was tasked. I was transformed and taking flight.
