I admit I don't understand exactly what you want to do. It sounds like you want two series, but you already have two series. You say you don't want a "Series Universe" column. This seems to say you want a third series-like column that is a combination of series universe and reading order, but I'm not sure.
Given what I think you want, a third series-like column, then I think you can mostly solve the problem using catalog creation's ability to select which column to use for "Genre". Something like this:
- Create the new series universe custom series column. This is where you put the series universe and the associated index (reading order?).
- Create a new custom tags-like column to contain the names in the series universe custom column that catalog creation can use as a genre.
- Use Action Chains to fill in the new custom tags-like column from the series universe series column. This is straightforward, using Action Chains Single Foeld Edit and a template to get the name from the series universe series.
- Create the catalog.
The above doesn't give you the series universe reading order. If you really want to see it then you could add the information to the comments section. This requires yet another custom column to format the series name and value into an appropriate text string.