 How is their world different from ours?
"After Extrone said he'd hunt farn beasts, even if it meant going to the alien system? "You'll destroy this one, too," Extrone said. "Yes," Extrone said, "I imagine they are. "Like all of my subjects," he waved his hand in a broad gesture, "the highest as well as the lowest slave, know me and love me. The two of them, beneath the leaf-swollen branches of the gnarled tree, were seated on their sleeping bags. The moon was clear and cold and bright in a cloudless sky; a small moon, smooth-surfaced, except for a central mountain ridge that bisected it into almost twin hemispheres. Everything they've come to believe would tell them we were lying.
 the government is run the same
 there is distrust among the citizens  the government is run the same  they both have powerful armies  powerful people control what happens next