To Tend And Watch Over - D. W. Patterson - Bog

To Tend And Watch Over: A Novella
Sometimes you don't know you aren't free until the state's coercive force is used against you. And then you learn you are only free to do what big brother wants.

Davide Jackson was not as adventurous as the others in his clan. He was more a stay-at-home type.

But that doesn't mean he longs any less to be free. He just has to pay the cost of freedom.
To Tend And Watch Over is set in the future (2080s) and is a story in the Future Chron Universe which consists of 9 novels, 16 novellas, and 8 short stories.
Hard Science Fiction - Old School.