It took a year to get back to Home. Even with the improvements that Kotth and Lurr gave me, as well as all the technology I collected from the wrecks at the Speaker, it still burned centuries. As such, I have moved my base of operations to the larger moon of the Gas giant, Skrimsil. It provides me what I need, and I don't want to disturb what I have accidentally created on Home. A massive ecosystems has sprung up, comprised of life native to Home, and the life from the hundreds of worlds that I had accumulated. It is quite the experiment and needs to be watched.
After checking in on Home and moving my base, I confirmed that the system that Home resides in is no less a construct than any of the other Void systems. On the trip back to Home, I stopped at multiple Void Systems, which is what i now call them, as they sit alone out in the void. Each Void System is beautiful and unique in it's own right. From that beautiful system with the the atmosphere that was nearly liquid from how hot and dense it is, and was yet teaming with life; to a system where the entire system is made up of small asteroids and space born lifeforms that feed off them.
I don't understand it, and the age of the system is seriously in question. I think that these construct systems are much, much older than they look. Using the new sensors I scavenged from wrecks at the Speaker, I have scanned the star of each Void System I visited. Those scans indicate that there is some kind of replenishment going on in the core of the star. The readings suggest that the stars age is only a billion or so years, but... With the replenishment going on, it is kept at that age, meaning that the star could be 300 billion years old, and there would be no way to know that. Detailed scans of Home, Skrimsil, and the other worlds here suggest similar. There is something that touches these systems, replenishes them, and keeps them stable. The mystery of the Void Systems deepens significantly with this new information.
After that, I made my way back to Trost. I met with Kotth, Lurr, and their people. They call themselves the Ull Malk'et, the meaning of which is lost with the language from which it was born, billions of years ago. They were in the galaxy that sits at the very center of Trost. There are so many worlds in Trost. An unusual number of worlds compared to a typical universe. The universe of Trost is only made up of about 50,000 galaxies. The ones on the outer edge are barren. It is very strange really. The galaxies on the edge are closer together than they really should be, and arranged in a sphere around a core set of galaxies. Really, it is a sphere. It is really strange. That sphere of 30,000 galaxies are all oriented flat facing outwards, their rotational axis pointed towards the central point of Trost. Pointed at that central electrical Arc like scar in space that gave birth to Trost. Those outer galaxies have worlds, but those that are there, are massive gas giants, and hostile giant rocks. Good for resource mining, but nothing anything like me or the Ull Malk'et, would want to live on. That said, every single star has at least one giant and one rocky world. It is weird, but it gets stranger with the inner galaxies. The stars in the inner galaxies have multiple worlds in every system, and at least one that might be considered habitable. In a normal universe, most stars have worlds, but worlds habitable by species like mine, the Ull Malk'et, and like that of my friends from the Speaker. Those are more rare, maybe 1 in 100 if you include those that could be terraformed and made to be habitable. If you don't include those, it is more like 1 in 1000, or more.
The Ull Malk'et, have been studying the formation of Trost. It would seem that Trost may in fact not be a naturally occurring universe. Meaning it was created, by someone. Just like the Speaker and the Void Systems. I have to ask myself. Who creates a universe? Kotth and Lurr are not sure who, or how, that might be done, despite the age of their people. It isn't something they sought out to learn. Even their most experienced explorers, those that have ranged much farther than any others of their species don't know, and have never encountered such technology. The configuration of the galaxies, the distribution of worlds, all of it adds up to Trost being yet another construct. A construct on an even larger scale than the Speaker and the Void Systems. I was so close when saw Trost born. Only a million or so years from then event. I literally just missed the creators. The Ull Malk'et have traded with me extensively for copies of all of my logs, data, and a further chance to study the Viteză Furie. I have consented to that, as one they have given me access to their version of the map, in exchange for versions of their communications device to attache to any Speakers that I come across that they have not yet.
They knew about the Speaker and had visited it in the distant past. It was one of the first such constructs that they visited as a people. They do not know who might have created it. It was ancient before they found it, and there are apparently hundreds, if not thousands of them. Not all of the same exact design, but all pulsing in exact time with each other, amplifying each others signals. Each with it's own part of the map of the wider cosmos. This is how their people know where things are. They have been out here in the wider cosmos for billions of years, and have visited dozens of the constructs, leaving behind a communication device just as I have done. That grants them access to an ever growing map. Each new construct they reach and leave a communication device connected to adds that map section. Their map view access automatically integrates each new map section into your access. I will have to add visits to as many Speakers as I can to my to-do list. It will benefit both of us. The distance between them however is astonishing, and I look at my friends the Ull Malk'et, and wonder where they are from to have been able to visit more than thirty of them. The Speakers to appear to be evenly spaced however. That tells me approximately where the next one would be, and it is farther than I have already traveled, even in the most liberal over-compensating estimates, by more than ten times.
As for my theory on the anchors also acting as portals to alternative realities, Kotth and Lurr did not openly scoff at the idea, and even suggested it had merit. That said, they didn't seem to give it a lot of weight either. I suppose I will have to figure out how to test that on my own.
I did some exploring of Trost myself, since I was here, and found some amazing things. I found worlds rife with life, and even what might be the starts of intelligence. I can understand why Kotth and Lurr's people are so fascinated by this universe. The life seems to be developing faster than you might expect, almost as if guided. I took some samples and found the most interesting things. I found nanites. The smallest, and most advanced nanites I have ever seen. When I brought them to the attention of Kotth and Lurr, they just nodded and said that those were part of why they thought the universe of Trost was artificial.
It is time for me to decide where to go next. Given how far I am from the Speaker, I think I will locate the next one, the nearest one to where I am now, that the Ull Malk'et have not visited yet. Widen my map of the wider cosmos. Then there is the massive nebula universe that Kotth and Lurr told me about. I can see it on the edge of my map, now that I have theirs added to mine.
I realize now just how woefully incomplete my map is, even with the addition of the Ull Malk'et pieces. I had thought it reflected the entirety of the wider cosmos, if not in full detail. In fact, it doesn't reflect even a small fraction of it. What I thought was the massive scale of the wider cosmos has been amplified by this realization. The realization that the wider cosmos is so much larger than I even dared think. That there is someone out there that builds things like the Speaker, the Void Systems, and Trost. I stared at a pair of newborn worlds in Trost for a week as I processed it all. It is a lot to take in. Yet is also drives my curiosity, my desire, my desperate need to find out, to maybe even find them. They must still be out there somewhere. I hope they are out there somewhere.
The mysteries of the cosmos just seem to get deeper the more I learn. The scale. The age. That there are species like the Ull Malk'et, like my friends from the construct, that have been out in the wider cosmos for millions, even billions of years. My world had not even formed when the constructs were being built. I'm really not sure I can deal with that reality, but I suppose I don't have a choice.
My first stop after I leave Trost will be where my friends are from. They are in the direction of the next Speaker in the chain. The promise of a pet or two is well worth the trip, and I have wanted to see their civilization. I am looking at Home, at Krath, and I realize that I will probably never come back to those places again. I am probably not going to be back to Trost for that matter. It is time to dive deep. It is time to travel, but first, friends.