Rationalizing a Firefly - Serenity type setting

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

A miracle system with multiple planets and moons in the habitable zone is super dooper unlikely, but not flatly impossible.

I don't see what makes it necessary. IMO, Firefly would have worked just as well in an open cluster (the Hyades is a really good candidate; both close and dense) with a very fast STL drive (probably some gravitic pseudovelocity warp drive). Taking a couple of years to get from the core to the fringe doesn't, IMO, hurt anything.