News of war, conflict, invasion, disaster, or even peace takes just as long to get back to the center of government. The advance of technology has resulted in practical methods of gravity manipulation. Artificial gravity is built into the deck plates of starships, rendering a natural environment most like that of a planet surface. Inertial dampers eliminate the extremes of inertia that can pull and push people and equipment as it maneuvers. Although such dampers are imperfect, they do allow a normal environment on starships as they maneuver, and they allow extreme physical maneuvers on small craft as they perform high-G maneuvers.
Thrusters work like rockets, but without the requirements for large amounts of rocket fuel.
Cheap fusion power means that the inhabitants of this universe are not tied to gas stations or complex fuel systems. Hydrogen taken from water, ice, even the methane of gas giants like Jupiter is all that is required to produce abundant electricity. Once a culture rises to the minimum required tech level, its cities depend on electricity produced by efficient, pollution free fusion power. Starships draw their fuel from the worlds they visit. The social sciences add a characteristic flavor to this universe by emphasizing the effects of the social sciences on societies in the universe.