3..2..1... Liftoff
The seat jerked back as the engines roared and the ship launched out of the water. Smith clutched the sides if they chair and closed his eyes. 
"Have you never flown?" A voice chuckled from across the aisle. 
"I've done simulators- and gone above the surface we've done plenty of out of water training" 
"Nothing prepares you for the jerk. This ain't fancy trade lord technology, no sir, the military uses what works" 
The young officer liked being called sir. "But there are civilians on this ship too" 
"Expendables- these are all Vesi no one cares about who would send a friend to colonize the stars when it's a 75% rate of death" 
"That's only because of the Quxikotl wars, besides," he pulled out his pistol, " we're prepared this time". 
"As if you know anything if the Quxikotl," the old Vesum chuckled again.  
No longer afraid, Smith turned to peer out the window. He could see the 12 seas (well at least he thought, 7 of them) and specks of brown and green land. The sight was beautiful. "Wow," he murmured softly, the water had stopped in his gills. Vesia is a beautiful place, and am I glad to live here. It showed no signs of poluttion or humongous factories, no smog or robots clotting things up. Blue as the day Boer swam the seas. 
"Sir, we've docked with the colony ship," a solider had swam into the passage and saluted. 
"Tell the captain" The trip up into the atmosphere and been quicker than he expected. 
They were traveling to a moon of Jalaryias to set up an outpost and possible colony for Vesia. Rumor had it something was already living there, but no evidence was shown with a far range scan so the king stamped the charter and assigned a squadron of ships along with 100 vesi-under my command. 
You'll be fine, he told himself, nothing to worry about. He had done well at the academy. He could shoot an entire clip accurately and have it reloaded in under 30 seconds and he could trust his life to any one of his men- they were all skilled. 
The Lieutenant stood up, strapped on his bag, and propelled himself to the entrance his body gliding through the water. 
Then he remembered, there would be no swimming for a while. The colony ship needed to be lighter and besides there might not be water on a small moon anyway (what's the point if even landing there if there's no water, no just follow orders). He'd get used to it. He was the best at out of water combat in his class-that's why he'd got this mission-still it gave him the chills to think of such a long time without being submerged under the waves. 
Hssss the airlock whistled and the door shut behind him draining water from the room. Several colonists gasps were audible, but everyone had the masks securely tightened around their gills. Here goes nothing...as the doors opened and he stepped into the vessel headed far away  from his birth land.