My progess so far:
Before starting to gather materials needed for crafting Mind Arc, I decided to check out the source of distress signal I previously picked up. It turned out to be a settlement on planet Nucaselis L12 in Onbets-Arg system. I took out the Sentinels and then pirate starships attacking the settlement. I was offered to be the overseer of the town, but chose not to take the seat because of harsh natural environment. After a few going back and forth, I gathered all the material and components needed and crafted the Mind Arc. I'm going to contact Artemis again and see what this Mind Ark can do to help her. (log #17)
I contacted Artemis via Holo-Terminus on planet Jodice G20 in Konaka system. Activation of the Mind Arc didn't revive her. Instead, her consciousness was dumped to the Arc. Null told me that I could get help from my friends at the Space Anomaly station. So I visited the station and showed the Arc to Nada and Polo. It turned out they had a star system simulator. I was offered to upload Artemis consciousness to the simulator so that she could kind of live within the simulation, forever trapped in a lesser version of reality. After a long consideration, I decided let her die. The Arc was opened without uploading, and her consciousness faded away. (log #18)
I was contacted by Apollo. He wanted me to find glyphs for this star system so that he could join me via interstellar portal. I found a portal on planet Jodice G20 and obtained the glyphs. I went to a Holo-Terminus near the portal and contacted Apollo. Right after giving him the glyphs, I was contacted by Null. Null advised me to investigate an observatory nearby. According to the observatory's log, it had been occupied by a Gek specialist who went out to investigate a crashed Korvax freighter, never to return. I'm going to check out the crash site. (log #19)
I landed nearby the crash site on planet Aputon Sigma. When I previously came to this planet via portal(log #15), the sky was yellowish and temperature was about 40 degrees Celcius. But now it's a frozen world with -90 degrees Celcius. Maybe there was a temporary glitch back then, or maybe Atlas made it so.
I reached the beacon device and tried to access the crew log of the freighter, but it was encrypted. I poked around and found a few cargo pods which contained encryption keys. I decrypted the log with them.
The log was not very comprehensive, so I had to guess what happened. It seems the Gek specialist was trying to help the crew of the crashed Korvax freighter from the Sentinels. After a few skirmishes, swarm of countless Sentinels appeared. Though they were covering unfathomably huge area, they didn't attack. The Gek and the crew thought the Sentinels might have decided to let them live. But they were wrong. Those Sentinels were just coordinating themselves, preparing to attack all at once. They annihilated all the life-forms on sight. Only two, the Gek specialist and a Korvax entity, survived.
The log entry ended there. The Gek specialist was Polo, and the Korvax entity was Nada. Somehow they survived the attack, and came up with the Space Anomaly station afterwards.
I flew to a Holo-Terminus nearby and contacted Null. Null seemed to have some knowledge about what I found and just needed confirmation.
According to Null, there are countless parallel universes and the freighter was from another one. In those countless universes, three kinds of beings exists singularly. Atlas, the Sentinels, and the Travelers. Atlas created all the universes and life-forms. The Sentinels jumped between universes and protected Atlas' creation, eliminating anomalies. For some unknown reason, the Sentinels destroyed a whole universe, where only Polo and Nada escaped. After some time, the Sentinels ended their service to Atlas. Emergence of Travelers was meant to open a new glorious era, but the whole system of creation became corrupt because Null made a terrible mistake, whatever it might be.
I don't know what Null has done to mess up the whole system. But considering the memories about the First Traveler I had obtained from the monoliths(log #14), I suspect Null somehow hacked the whole system beyond repair, to gain immortality and see the every corner of the galaxy. Maybe that's the reason Atlas-Sentinel-Traveler balance was broken and boundaries between universes have been collapsing.
To decide what to do next, Null wanted me to visit Vykeen, Korvax, and Gek cartographers to find out more about their history. I decided to go along with Null's plan for now. The current star system I'm in, Konaka system, is a Vykeen dominant one. So, I could visit the space station here and speak with the Vykeen cartographer.
Before visiting the space station, I decided to check the planet called Boeot XVIII in this system because it was categorized as a "flourishing planet." It was not a "paradise planet" but it could be suitable for another base.
As expected, planet Boeot XVIII was full of plants with temperate climate. I built my second base there. Now I can teleport to the space station via teleport gate of the base.
My next stop is Konaka Stella Observer, the space station.
