Uncharted Space (World Building Notes)

There has been a topic of conversation on my mind for some time now, I really have no idea whether or not I'll go with this idea, but I do really like it and would be interested in seeing if I could do something like it for my world.

Source

Uncharted Space
There is a large region of space in the world I write my stories in, and this region isn't really explained in the book.

In the mainline series, there is a story following a Confederation recruit who takes on a job aboard an experimental ship kitted out with specialised equipment in order to chart this region, which before this ship was unveiled, they weren't able to do.

While he is out here, the ship goes missing, as many ships have done in the past. They also cannot find the ship or get any response from them, with no contact the scientists are baffled and the only explanation for this phenomenon is that solar flares or solar winds have interrupted the ships and perhaps left the ships fried by EMPs. But, there is no concrete understanding or information, so there are left with no choice but to forget about the missing ships, as sending more people in isn't an option.

The Gnosians
This monstrous alien race is as harsh as the planet they hail from, and is the main reason for the conflict between The Confederation and Free Space, as the Gnosians started to raid colony worlds.

When the war broke out, the Gnosians fled into the uncharted zone on mass and were essentially never heard from again. They still exist in the world, but the majority of them fled.

In the mainline book, Cutter and his crew make a jump with a dodgy engine but have no choice as they are being pursued by pirates. The Jump Lane closes halfway through their journey, and they end up in the Uncharted Zone.

They send out an SOS, knowing the risks they do so with no choice, as they don't know if the engineers are able to repair the ship's engines. Some Gnosians come across the SOS and find the ship, there is a battle, but before they can board the engines are repaired enough to do another jump.

This is risky, however, as it's extremally hard for the ship's navigation computer to calculate their journey, because of the strange phenomenon that happens in Uncharted Space.

What's In There?
This is where I'm at, it's such a vast area, which nobody enters willingly, bar the Gnosians; for whatever reason.

One thing I've been thinking about for this zone is a parasitic lifeform. But, an intelligent one that takes over its host, keeping them alive as some kind of living nest/ slave. While living in this host, the worms are able to multiply and infect other people slowly. That's a general idea anyway, but they're intelligent, confined to the planets they can reach, however, the fact that it's hard to navigate this area without a navigation system, they have been locked down on whatever planets they reached.

Now, here's the thing, these parasites don't need a host, so they're not exactly a parasite. They are basically a worm-like alien race, which uses the bodies of others. When their victims die, they can stay animated with the help of these creatures... until they decompose. At that point, they just become fertilizer for the worm population to boom.

Why Is The Uncharted Zone, Uncharitable?
Well, here's the thing, in ancient times, this species was discovered and as a defensive measure, large beacons were erected on moons, planets, and even asteroids.

With these beacons in place scrambling all Navigation Charts and Systems, it's impossible for this parasite to reach new planets. This happened so long ago, that none of the current races in the universe remember.

The issue. The Gnosians, are warlike and stupid, there is a strong chance that they have discovered this species and are thinking of ways to weaponize them, or even worse than that, they may have discovered these beacons, or The Confederation could discover these beacons and if they decided to start destroying them, opening entire regions of the universe up for colonization, they could unwittingly release a dormant parasite which could quickly devour the universe.

Religion
There is one ancient religion I was working on, which in the current timeline, they are a secret society of murderers. Their belief is that there is a Galactic soul eater monster, who will eat enough souls one day that it will burst and create a new universe, wiping away the old.

This Doomsday cult is trying to make this happen, and in doing so they make sacrifices for it. But, this religion is actually misinterpreted. It's not about a creature that eats souls and will create a new universe, it's actually about this parasite, which could one day devour every lifeform in the galaxy and end it all.