How Nova is different and the same from how we live now...
First, the Novaverse has to be converted into something we can understand, because planets and systems are clearly causing too much argument about whether or not they could function as Nova shows them doing.
A system is a city or town. A planet is a building or piece of land.

You live in a small town in the country. Your city is build on land that has rich minerals, water, and fertile soil.
You own a large truck. You also own a small luxury car.
Your neighbor has a farm, but no way of getting drinking water or metal for farm tools.
Your other neighbor has a well, but no way of producing food, and no metal.
Your last neighbor has his house built right on top of an iron mine. He has no food or water source.
100 miles away is a city. This city has only 1 building- a combined factory and apartment building.
The "city" needs everything that your town has. Food and water to feed the workers, and metal to make into "product."
You buy food from your first neighbor. He worked hard to grow that food, but has lots and chages only 2cr a ton.
You buy water from your second neighbor. He just pumped it out of the well, with no difficulty. He gives you the water practiclly free- 1cr a ton.
Your third neighbor had to mine the metal, climbing down into the mine, getting ore, refining it, and so on. He charges more than the others, at 10cr a ton.
You load your truck with 2 tons of each. You put the truck in overdrive (hyperspace ) and get to the city.
You sell the food for 4cr a ton and water for 2cr a ton, making a small profit off of it.
It may be not profitable, but it is needed to keep the factory going. That is important, as you now can sell that metal for 20cr a ton.
Your profits are now 26cr (cr means CREDITS. Or whatever your currency is.)
You buy two tons of product, which was made at the cost of 1 ton of food, water, and metal for each ton.
The factory may have needed 1 ton of water, food, and metal to make that product, but they are not charging only what they paid for it! It cost 26cr to make that, but they sell it to you for 35 credits a ton.
That is OK, as once you overdrive back to your home town, that finished product can be sold to your neighbors for 50cr a ton, for a total of 100cr.
Not including gas costs, your 46cr of goods has been turned into a total of 100 credits.
You could buy twice as much food, water, and metal from your neighbors, but your truck can only hold 6 tons! You buy a bigger one next time you are in the city. You still only brought enough of your neighbor's goods to bring back 2 tons of product, but next time you will be able to carry 12 tons there, and 4 tons back, doubling your profits.
There you go. A believable, possible "trading" situation just like those in Nova, but on good old Earth. Maybe your planet has rain, but not sufficient fresh water to drink. You could use the rain to grow plants, but the runoff goes to the salt water ocean. You can not drink it. So, your nearest planet sends some over from it's giant freshwater lake, but needs your food to survive- it is covered entirely with water. Another planet is a barren wasteland with no natural resourses or farmable land, but it has great reserves of metal under the surface. These planets give resourses that are needed by the others to the others, in trade for what they need. They also ship goods to a distant space station that has NO resources whatsoever, but can, using resources from those three planet, can produce goods that probably make it easier for the resource- gathering to happen in the first place. It can also support a huge population.
Ways Nova is not like our civilization today
Death peanaly for smuggling. Basically, the cops blow your car to bits when they find out that you had illegal drugs in your trunk. Or an illegally modified exhaust. You better hope you have an ejector seat
Pirating pirates legal. At least in America, if you break in somewhere, you are breaking in, no matter where. If the victim happens to be public enemy #1, in jail on 134 counts of murder, and you take advantage of him being away and break into his house, you go to jail.

Well, that is just about all I can think of. Excluding the obvious "Well, it is in space," because that has been said already. several times. Feel free to add to that list. I can't believe that's it...

EDIT: Oops, that luxury sports car was going to help me explain transporting people. Maybe later...

This post has been edited by FedKiller : 13 July 2005 - 09:11 PM