This ship is currently whizzing through the stars at faster than light speed, and its pilot swivels around in her chair when she hears breathing.

Whoops. "Sorry," the kobold says, and then steps through the portal and repeats herself; the sound is the same, but it's comprehensible the second time where it wasn't the first.

"Who are you?" asks the pilot.

"I'm a kobold; my species doesn't use names, but you're not likely to meet another one."

"...okay. I'm Isabella T'Mir and this is my ship Prometheus. What brings you here?"

"A friend asked me to do some scouting for them; they're looking for another civilization to swap technology with. I haven't figured out if you have anything they'd be interested in, though."

"What civilization are you from?"

"A different one than theirs; I don't usually talk about it very much. We're not from the same world; there's an interdimensional bar that we met at."

"An interdimensional bar?"

"Mmhmm. It's called Milliways; it uses magic to bring patrons from different universes together. Safer than my magic, for meeting new people."

"Is there some danger associated with this - portal?"

"Only that I don't know very much about where it's brought me. You seem nice enough, but not everyone is."

"I try to be friendly. What kind of technology does your friend's civilization have? Besides access to the bar?"

"They're probably fairly similar to you for tech level in general; I was looking for spaceships similar to theirs. They do have really good computers, including some specialized nonperson AI and sensory hardware, for the level they're at. The civilization doesn't have access to Milliways, though; that's usually a personal thing."

"Our AI is limited but includes universal translation, if you prefer not to converse across the portal my computer can learn your language in a few minutes with a cooperative speaker. Access to Milliways is a personal thing how?"

"People mostly can't get to Milliways when they choose to; they get a door when Milliways chooses to give them one. And it doesn't stick around afterward to let them prove what happened, so most people just don't tell anyone what happened at all. I can get there with my own magic, but that's very rare."

"That sounds inconvenient. The general case, not yours."

"It's not bad for what it is - it's not meant to bring worlds in contact, just people, and it has a bunch of magic for that."

"Is that how you're translating right now?"

"No - Milliways' translation only works in Milliways. I have this for it." She taps one of the two pendants she's wearing around her neck. "The other one is defense magic."

"Where are those from?"

"This one was a gift; this one I traded some magic items I made for."

"You can make magic items?"

"Mmhmm. I have teleportation magic; the main limitation is that I have to have been to the destination if you want it to take you somewhere specific."

"That's really fascinating. - The bar is interdimensional and not interplanetary?"