Hannah was rather pleased with herself. While she hadn't exactly been happy about her meal's interruption, in the end, it had turned out for the better. Not only had she gained quite a bit of valuable information from ransacking the starship that had ended up in her clutches, but she now also had two new friends!

Well, sort of two friends. One of them was dead, but she was working to fix that, so hopefully, that little issue would be resolved soon. Her still-alive friend was also sort of still terrified of her, but Hannah just knew that she would soon see the truth.

With a crunch, the drained star she'd been crushing finally gave in to her not-so-gentle ministrations. As she began to absorb the now-useless star matter, she shut off her extradimensional brain structures.

Despite having now eaten three stars in a row in less than two months, Hannah still found the energy costs of keeping her simulation centers far too expensive. Nonetheless, she'd already gained a lot of improvements and refinements, so she was far from upset about it.

After all, she knew first-hand just how much easier it was to plunder information than to have to obtain it by oneself, as highlighted by her rapid evolution following her devouring of the starship.

The weapons and scanning tools mounted on it were sort of pathetic, but its shielding and FTL travel was far superior to her own. Sure, technology didn't exactly translate easily between an AI-controlled starship designed for humans and a massive star-eating monster, but to Hannah, it was easy as cake.

With a flex of her will, Hannah shot off into the distance, space shrinking and extending to suit her needs once more. She'd set up various checks and scans to prevent incidents like the previous one from occurring again, as she damn well knew that the chances of her getting as lucky as she did previously were close to nil, and the chances of disaster far too high.

Her body shifted slightly, adopting her more usual serpentine shape. Within moments, she had entered hyperspace. It was an interesting dimension, all told, and Hannah highly doubted that her soon-to-be friends truly understood the place.

Hell, even she only had a basic understanding of it, and she considered herself an expert on dimensional studies, what with relying on them to hide the vast majority of her body. Nonetheless, she couldn't deny its usefulness, as it allowed her to travel far faster and more efficiently than she ever did before.

Then, as she started thinking about which destination to head towards, an idea popped up in her mind. The information she'd gained from Sarah's brain mostly painted the universe as a still very much unexplored place, especially as their civilization had only been amongst the stars for less than a few generations.

However, they had encountered a few primitive nations, ones who were still locked in their planets. While Hannah didn't know the locations of the majority of these places, she did know a few, having been sent there on observation detail.

Now, Hannah was faced with a somewhat difficult choice. She had energy and mass aplenty, devouring three massive stars did tend to do that after all, but she had begun to find diminishing returns from her simulation centers. They were massively helpful, but they were not omnipotent.

So, she could either continue as she was, eating stars for their mass and energy, or head towards one of the inhabited planets and hope for the best.

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Waffling a bit, Hannah mulled over her choices. On the one hand, she could go and see people! Well, alien-y people, but still people! And also gather some valuable information. On the other hand, she ran the risk of exposing herself, and while she doubted Sarah's people could hurt her in any meaningful way, Hannah was certain that there were others out there who could.

It was one of the first and harshest lessons she'd learned when she first emerged into the Void. There was always someone bigger, stronger, smarter than you, no matter how high you rose.

Then, she abruptly brightened. She had a friend, she could just ask her for some advice!

Projecting her consciousness within one of the hundreds of hidden dimensions where she stored her extra mass, she immediately manifested within Sarah's little box. As a humanoid avatar formed, she watched as Sarah let out a long breath from where she'd been sitting, her eyes slightly too wide to be normal.

"Hello." Hannah greeted kindly. "I require... Assistance. Yes. Suggestion." She explained, to which the human woman seemed aghast at for some reason.

"Uh... I-I don't know how I can help? I'm not, I'm just... Please help me, Emperor." She started, only to trail off and whisper at the end. Hannah tilted her avatar's head, somewhat baffled at her friend's attitude.

"I have not... hurt you. I have fed, watered, and energized you. Am I not a good friend?" She questioned. The sputtered denials and reassurances, but Hannah still felt a bit skeptical. A quick brain scan did confirm that, indeed, Sarah was still terrified of her and that she thought Hannah wanted her soul, which to be fair, Hannah was a bit curious about.

Still, it hurt somewhat. "How do I be... good friend?" She asked instead once the other woman had stopped babbling uselessly. There was a moment of silence as Sarah's face went through several interesting changes and colors, and Hannah took the opportunity to gather some data on emotional showcasing. She was quite rusty, after all. Millenia of isolation tended to do that to people.

In the end, it took several minutes for Sarah to find her words. "I... I don't know? I mean, you could let me go?" She hesitantly offered, only to backtrack immediately for some reason when she looked at the face of Hannah's avatar. "I-I mean, you don't have to! I'd appreciate it and all, and, and... Uh, you said you needed advice, right?" She quickly asked.

Hannah brightened slightly. "I require counsel, yes. I have been... deciding, how to go. Eat stars, or visit new friends?" She asked. The slightly lost and confused look on Sarah's face forced her to further explain. "I need... information. Data. Diminishing returns. Your brain contained the locations of four inhabited planets. Do you... advice visiting?"

She watched as Sarah digested the information. Her eyes kept darting to and from Hannah's avatar for some reason, but eventually, the human woman settled for a slightly shaky smile.

"I... I think you should totally visit! They'll love to have you, I'm sure. I'm sure you'll gather a lot of data there." She said, causing Hannah to perk up happily. "B-but, I think you should go to Heredia first! It's one of the forbidden zones, so nobody will bother you, and the natives are super interesting, I swear!" She quickly added.

Hannah tilted her head slightly, mentally pulling up a review of this... Heredia place. "Heredia. Planet of Gods. Space-faring civilizations are forbidden from interfering under the pain of death. The native population consists of a strange mix between humans, theorized to have been kidnapped millennia ago from their homes on Terra, and other inbred or otherwise kidnapped humanoid species. They possess a surprising mastery of psychic manipulation for a pre-FTL race." She surmised. For some reason, Sarah had started sweating and looking increasingly more and more scared the further she recited the review pulled directly from her head.

"Uh, um... Y-yeah...?" She stuttered out like a broken record. Hannah ignored her human faults, after all, she knew that she too had once been a human, so she could totally relate. Sort of. It had been a while.

"Thank you. It sounds... interesting." Hannah happily said. "We will... explore lots. Make friends!" She proclaimed before re-absorbing her avatar, leaving behind a despairing human.

Re-orienting her body, Hannah began the relatively long journey that would take her to this 'world of gods' place. Despite all of her brainpower, she never even suspected just how disastrously it would all end.