How do you comprehend the nature of the 3d geography of 'that which facilitates the force of gravity' surrounding this planet

Spacetime can be represented as a 4-dimensional pseudo-Riemannian (Lorentzian) manifold whose metric tensor satisfies the Einstein field equations. This is part of the rigorous formulation of general relativity.

This difference must be measured in some substantial way, that way in which, is mass.

The curvature is a sufficient measure. Mass is a different concept.

I do not think you can say with any probability in your favor that a motionless planet sitting in free space, causes the gravity field it is sitting in, to flash in and out of existence at the speed of light while retaining its inverse square geometry.

Gravitational waves are well understood. Indeed, they don't arise (in a classical sense) from motionless bodies; acceleration of an object will produce gravitational waves, just as acceleration of charges will produce electromagnetic waves.

But again, that's the classical picture. In modern theories of particle physics, interactions between particles are (heuristically) mediated by the exchange of other particles—for instance, electromagnetic interactions are mediated by the exchange of virtual photons. A quantum theory of gravity would mediate gravitational interactions with a graviton, which is the particle analogue of a gravitational wave.

I think you will find these discussions much more useful if you do a little more background reading first. I suggested an article elsewhere ITT that you might find useful. If it's not up your alley, try this one, or this one.