[SFAP] Chapter 12:1

This is the first section of the twelfth chapter of Sonnets from a Proton. The novel starts here.
The next section is here.

Eyes blurry Laurence tried to force open his eyes and found them sealed with dried up fluids. His hands were somewhat free, but in handcuffs and he was able to scrape the substance off his eyelids and see the cell they were residing in.
“Ah, you’re awake” came Sargent Bee’s voice from the next cell.
“How long have we been here”
“I’ve been awake about a day or so it’s hard to tell they never adjust the lighting from this perpetual twilight.”
Laurence looked down at the bandage surrounding his leg “They want to keep us alive then.”
“Apparently they were astonished there were any survivors. I think they were expecting the missile to kill us all.”
“Guess we built the Freedom well enough.”
“The Freedom, humph” grumbled Bee “Guess they knew what it would abbreviate to when they named it.”
“That’s it’s full name, that’s what’s painted on the side”
“That’s all they had time to paint before it left. Take a closer look at it next time you see it if there’s anything left and you’ll see they started to paint the rest of it but ran out of time.”
“No I didn’t realise, I just specified and paid for the thing they don’t ask me anything interesting like to name it, what did they chose for the full name then?”
“The Freedom to Obey” chuckled Bee, his brow wrinkled as if a thought had just occurred to him “What do you mean you paid for it?”
“Oh you weren’t around for that speech” laughed Laurence “Don’t worry I’m sure that matters not a jot here.”
The doors to the cell block opened and much brighter light from the corridor streamed in to fill the room. Two guards wearing what appeared to be  magnetic boots walked in and opened Laurence’s cell door. Laurence started to protest but found that floating in the micro-gravity environment as he was there was nothing he could get a purchase on and was helpless against the anchored guards. He continued to struggle and one of the guards pressed a small unit to his forehead, Laurence felt a short shock then lost consciousness again.