An Intergalactic Mate Swap

Just on a quick note; this story is partially a spin-off of my other story "An Intergalactic Halloween." It's not a chapter 2 or a direct sequel, but it takes place in the sci-fi universe from that story. You don't HAVE to read that story in order to read and understand this one but the two stories do kind of complement each other so it might be worth reading anyway. I haven't decide if I'm going to do a chapter 2 for this yet; maybe if it's well received, I will. Oh, and this was also supposed to be a New Years story, but I was unable to get it out in time for New Year's Eve. It ended up being longer than I had anticipated so it took longer for me to finish. Anyways, enjoy, and please comment...it makes me giggle!

Main Characters:

Mike Sanborn- Human, Federation marine

Liz Sanborn- his wife, Human, Federation marine

Rajah Oc'thello- Kataaran (anthropomorphic tiger alien), Federation marine

Akaya Oc'thello- his mate, Kataaran, Federation marine

Characters from "An Intergalactic Halloween" that make a brief cameo appearance:

Nick Meyers- Human, former Federation fleet engineer, now an ambassador

Valhala Raahana- his girlfriend, Yvon (purple-skinned humanoid alien), ambassador in human space

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"The shuttle will be landing in New York in about five minutes. Please ensure that your seatbacks and tray-tables are in their upright and locked position as we make our final descent to Earth. Thank You."

All the passengers of the shuttle looked out of their side windows as the blue and green terrestrial planet came into view and grew larger and larger as the ship made its descent. All around them, an infinite ocean of stars and the deep, majestic void of space expanded out in all directions.

Toward the center of the ship sat two humans dressed in the blue regalia of the Federation marines. On the left, closest to the window was a black-haired man with a muscled physique. His attentive brown eyes were gazing outwardly onto the approaching Earth, taking a relaxed breath from the solace of being able to return home after so long.

Beside him sat a slender light-brown-haired human woman dressed in similar uniform colors. Her hair was tied back into a pony tail as per military regulation while her flawless face was both delicate-looking and yet hid a plethora of past experiences from her military duty behind her gleaming deep blue eyes. She, along with the man beside her, had the shoulder of her blue uniform tagged with a single stripe, indicating her as private first-class, as well as four letters: GASF (Galactic Alliance Systems Federation).

She turned to the male soldier, giving his arm a gentle squeeze. He turned away from the window to look at her with a smile.

"How do you feel, Mike?" she asked him sweetly, her hand moving from his arm to give his hand a gentle squeeze.

He leaned across his seat to her and drew her to him. His face honed in on hers before their lips met in a gentle, loving kiss. Their smiling faces pulled back to look at each other while their hands continued to stay intertwined.

"Glad to be home. And even more glad to have you back with me, Liz," he softly replied back to his wife, punctuating it with a kiss on her cheek. The two immediately fell into another loving, passionate kiss, oblivious to the flight attendants and other passengers walking up and down the row near them. When they disconnected from it, Liz laid her head onto her husband and compatriot's shoulder as they both stared out the window to the approaching Earth.

"Michael, Elizabeth," a rich, thickly accented feminine voice spoke from across the row to Liz's right.

Liz lifted her head from Mike's shoulder and the two spun around to look over at the source of the voice.

In the middle row, across from Mike and Liz, were two more seated passengers adorned in the dress blues of the Federation marines. These two, also a male and female, were not humans like Mike and Liz. The uniforms of these soldiers were rather filled by two distinctly alien figures with physical features reminiscent of felines, or rather tigers in particular.

The female tiger-marine on the left that had spoken out to the two of them had a slender build similar to Liz's although she was taller by a scant couple inches. Unlike Liz, her head of brown hair wasn't tied back into a pony tail but was trimmed down short enough that it was left flowing behind her unhindered. The felinoid female, although bipedal, had features blatantly similar to that of a tiger including a maw with whiskers and a pink button nose, paws, a bushy, waving tail, tapered ears, and finally, a rich fur coat across her entire body. Although striped like that of a tiger, the fur coating was dissimilar to the colors of the animals commonly found on Earth; instead of a coating of orange and white with black, she instead had a light brown coating that matched the hair on her head, along with black stripes lining her fur.

The male beside her had many similar features but with a few differences. Like his human counterpart, Mike, he had a tall, muscled, defined build beneath his uniform and was about the same height as him. Instead of a brown coating similar to the tigress sitting beside him, he instead had the quintessential tiger exterior found on Earth's common Bengal Tigers; a vibrant orange and white fur coating with the intervals of black stripes lining his muscled build. He, like the tigress, had striking golden eyes complimentary to his race and even similar to the distant feral counterparts on Earth.

Mike and Liz, who had turned to the two anthropomorphic tiger marines, nodded their heads at them.

"Rajah, Akaya; you guys excited to be visiting our humble backwater mess for the first time?" Mike asked with a grin.

The female tiger, Akaya, smirked, raising her eyebrows at him. "Backwater, surely you aren't serious? There's so much more excitement on Earth than back home on Kataara," she replied.

"Exciting? Please. When we went with you guys to Kataara on our last furlough, we almost got mauled by that giant...gl-, what was it?" Liz asked the two tigers.

"Glilox," the male tiger, Rajah, replied to them with a grin.

"And yes, that may have been exhilarating, but I hear that Earth is the place to be during your New Year's Eve celebration," Rajah continued.

"No argument there. I plan on getting soooo drunk that my dear wifey here is going to have to carry me home," Mike chuckled, giving a playful nibble on his wife's earlobe. Liz shoved him away jokingly in response.

"Dream on, soldier, it's going to be the other way around and YOU are going to be the designated driver for tonight after me and Rajah and Akaya drink ourselves into a coma," his wife laughed, giving him a kiss on the cheek afterward.

Mike gave a mock grimace, pretending to wipe the kiss from his cheek, causing Liz and their two felinoid compatriots to laugh at the display.

Mike turned back toward Liz and the other two and said, "So, let's go over the details again; we start off by getting wasted and kicking it back tonight for New Year's Eve, tomorrow me and Liz take you guys on a grand tour of the big apple..."

"Wait, we are going to visit a giant fruit?" Rajah interjected all of a sudden.

Liz and Mike both grinned at each other. "No, Rajah, the 'big apple' is just a name we give for New York City," Mike replied.

Rajah wrinkled his whiskers with a confused frown before nodding.

"So as I was saying; we spend the first week taking in the sights of the U.S.A, Los Angeles, Texas, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, the whole shebang," he continued.

"And don't forget that you and I are going to take some time in there to visit our folks," Liz added. "Our parents will want to see us alive and in person after we just survived a sector rebellion light years away."

They both nodded before their travel plans were interrupted by scaly green female flight attendant passing by with a cartload of beverages in tow. The female, a species known as the Galkron, turns toward both the two humans and the two Kataarans with a courteous smile across her green face.

"Would you like a drink before we land?" the flight attendant asked.

Mike and Liz nodded, kindly asking the flight attendant for a Bourbon each. Afterward, Akaya and Rajah requested a foreign Kataaran beverage each, all four of them thanking the attendant as she passed on.

The took a few sips of their respective drinks as, outside the shuttle, a blazing light engulfed the ship as they began to break the Earth's atmosphere. Akaya reached over and gently squeezed Liz's arm to get her attention again.

"So, as we were saying before, we will be visiting the African Savannah during the second week of furlough, correct?" Akaya asked with an eager smile across her striped face.

Liz smiled and nodded along with Mike.

"Yup, I know you guys are eager to visit your distant cousins," Mike joked to his two tiger-like compatriots.

Rajah rolled his golden eyes, waving the other male marine off with his paw. "You've made that joke numerous times already," he sighed with a grin.

"Nah nah, it's cool. Yes, we will be visiting Africa right after we hit the states, I swear," Mike replied.

"Yeah, I hear they have a preserve that houses some of the last two-hundred African tigers alive in the world. It's definitely something worth seeing," Liz agreed.

Mike nodded. "Yup, then we hit Europe, then the Middle East, Asia and finally we end up back in the U.S. for the last couple days of our glorious four-week furlough and I'd say that's a job well done," he concluded with a smile.

Rajah smiled and raised his drink glass to the three of them. "I propose a toast to celebrate our furlough together," he pronounced to them in his elegant, accented voice.

Mike, Akaya and Liz raised their glasses to him with smiled. Liz craned her head to whisper to Mike, "That's cute, he learned another Earth custom."

The four chuckled in unison but continued to hold up their alcoholic beverages.

"Here is a toast...to Earth, and the Federation...and here's to friends," Rajah said to them sincerely, giving a smile to Mike and Liz. Akaya nodded and looked over at them as well, meeting his smile and giving one of her own across her maw.

Mike and Liz gave sincere smiles back, raising their glasses in response to his toast. "Amen to that. To friends," Mike said, nodding to them.

The two humans and two Kataarans drank down in unison before leaning back in their chairs. Mike once again had his hand intertwined with that of his military spouse just as Akaya and her tiger mate held paws as the shuttle broke from the atmosphere. Below them, a huge body of water gave way to the large North American continent familiar to Mike and Liz but unfamiliar to Akaya and Rajah. The two tiger-like aliens looked out the window with anticipation and eagerness as they descended toward New York.

After only a few more moments, the shuttle approached a sprawling metropolitan area before almost immediately coming to a smooth, easy halt upon a platform. Outside, other platforms of robotic machinery and workers of various species were busy loading and unloading other shuttles.

After a few more moments of waiting, the overhead lights in the symbol of a seatbelt shut off and the various passengers aboard the shuttle immediately stood up to begin gathering their belongings from the overhead compartments.

"This is your captain speaking, and we here at the Federation Mass Transit would like to formally welcome you to John F. Kennedy Intergalactic Spaceport. We hope you enjoy your stay here on Earth and hope you fly the galaxy with us again soon," a voice said over the loudspeaker, bidding them all farewell.

Mike and Liz stretched out their muscles before they retrieved their single duffle bag each and Akaya and Rajah did the same. Afterward, they walked out through the doorway of the shuttle in single file as they were funneled out into the spaceport.

As soon as they stepped off the chrome, oval-shaped shuttle, the platform gave way to a massive sprawling spaceport with the skyline of the New York metropolitan area looming over in the background. Swarms of travelers of various species scattered from place to place across the terminal, all of them going in and out of shuttles that would take them to other parts of Earth or the galaxy.

In the center of the terminal, standing high and large enough for everyone to see, was a holographic wall of arrivals and departures for all the shuttles in the port. On one side of the chart was 'Interplanetary Destinations', signifying locations across Earth. Places familiar to both Mike and Liz including Orlando, Los Angeles, Beijing, Madrid, Moscow, Quebec, London and so on lined the chart, shifting and blinking every time a flight time changed. On the other side of the chart was a listing of 'Intergalactic Destinations', listing various sectors and planets within GASF space where members of the Federation's cooperating species could travel to. Mike found it funny that the latter part of the chart was really the only thing that distinguished this intergalactic spaceport from a traditional 21st century airport.

Mike was walking in a trance beside his wife and their two Kataaran companions, staring up at the destinations chart looming over the terminal. He was so captivated by it for whatever reason that he accidentally bumped into a pair of passersbys making their way over from another shuttle platform. The collision caused him to drop his duffle bag as Liz, Akaya and Rajah spun around to observe the brief scuffle.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my apologies," Mike said suddenly, reaching down to gather the fallen duffle bag of the person that he'd bumped into.

"Yeah, likewise, I wasn't watching where I was walking, sorry too," the man, another human male replied back.

Mike turned his gaze upward, handing the duffle bag back to the other man before his eyes widened in recognition of the one he'd bumped into. The other human, adorned in a casual long-sleeve shirt and jeans, also had curly brown hair, light complexion and green eyes, as well as a muscled, well-toned build that nearly matched Mike and Rajah.

"Nick?" Mike uttered in recognition. "Nick Meyers, is that you?"

The other man cocked his head and squinted slightly as he tried to recollect that familiar face. His eyebrows then rose as it came back to him.

"Mike Sanborn? You-, what are you doing on Earth?" Nick suddenly asked, flabbergasted as he dropped the fallen bag that he'd been retrieving.

Mike crossed his arms and frowned as he stared the other man up and down for a moment.

"That's all you have to say to the man who pulled your ass out of the rubble?" the human marine laughed, immediately hooking his arm around Nick's neck and giving him a rather forceful noogie like an older brother would do to a younger sibling.

Liz, Akaya and Rajah all rolled their eyes at the display even as the slightly shorter man in casual clothing tried to avoid Mike's knuckles digging into his scalp. Mike grinned but then cast his gaze upward as he had only now taken notice of Nick's companion who was also grinning from ear to ear as she too watched the amateurish display take place.

Beside Nick was a slender, violet-skinned woman, obviously an alien but with anatomy that wasn't entirely dissimilar from that of a human. She also had slightly pointy ears, striking red eyes, radiant silver hair that flowed to her shoulders and a slim form beneath her casual clothing.

"Oh...hello, mam," Mike said to the purple-skinned woman, blushing with embarrassment after having just roughed up her travel companion even as his arm still had Nick's head locked in a hold.

"Hey...Liz, want to get this creature off of me, please?" Nick laughed as he looked back at Mike's wife standing beside the tiger and tigress marines behind Mike.

Mike smirked before finally giving Nike freedom to move his head again. Nick craned his neck, grinning at his former compatriot.

"A warm welcome, as always, Private Sanborn," Nick chuckled.

He then turned his gaze over to the purple woman standing sheepishly separated from the rest of the group. Nick gave her a knowing, kind smile before gently taking her hand in his and introducing her.

"This is my girlfriend, Valhala Raahana," he said, pointing out the slender purple female. "And Val, these are PFC's Michael Sanborn and Elizabeth Jameson of the Federation marines," Nick said, introducing his girlfriend to Mike and Liz.

Val gave a welcome smile, reaching out a slender purple hand and shaking hands with both Mike and Liz.

"Pleased to meet you; I'm always glad to meet proud soldiers of the Federation, especially friends of my Nick," Val said to both of them with a kind smile.

Mike and Liz nodded back to her with friendly smiles of their own. Liz then turned to Nick and said, "It's actually Elizabeth Sanborn now," she proudly stated.

Nick's eyebrows rose as he looked at both of them. "You two are married now?! When did this happen and why did I not get an invitation to the wedding?" Nick gasped.

Mike laughed. "Five months ago. We would've invited you but we didn't know how to contact you. You kind of fell off the face of the galaxy after you left the fleet. Anyway, the wedding happened while we were still in active duty so we didn't really make it a big thing anyway."

Nick nodded before he looked past Mike and Liz to see the two other marines standing back. Nick had come into contact with the Kataarans before but this was the first time in a while that he'd met them in person. Mike took notice of this too and stepped aside to give the orange-striped tiger male and his brown-striped female counterpart room to be introduced into the picture.

"These here are me and Liz's furry partners in crime, Rajah and Akaya Oc'thello. And this here is Nick Meyers, the man who can rework a blown transmitter with his eyes closed," Mike introduced them.

Nick and Val pleasantly shook hands and paws with the two tiger-like aliens. Akaya smirked at Nick, saying in her rich accented voice, "That's a rather useful talent if I do say so myself."

Nick rolled his eyes. "He exaggerates, as usual. Although I can probably rework a shuttle's air conditioning system with my eyes closed," he laughed.

Nick and Val looked at the two humans and two Kataarans. "So, what brings you four here?" he asked.

Mike and Liz shrugged. "We weren't about to miss the New Year's Eve hype, were we? The four of us are on a month-long furlough and we're going to make the most of it with a good old tour of Earth," Mike explained.

"This is Rajah and Akaya's first time here so we're also showing them around our humble planet," Liz added.

Mike nodded. "And you?" he asked Nick.

Nick looked over at Val and smiled. "Well Val here is one of the Yvon ambassadors in human space and, as of two months ago, I am now the human ambassador for Yvon space. So, essentially we are going to be spending the next few months visiting each other's homeworlds together," he said as his hand and snaked into Val's to intertwine together.

"Hey, congratulations Mr. Ambassador! I'm glad for both of you," Mike said to them. "What's the salary of an ambassador like?"

Liz snorted. "Above your paygrade, that's for sure," she giggled.

"We'll also be swinging in for the celebrations a bit while we're here too," Nick added.

Val nodded. "Yes...Nick assures me that I have to be in Time's Square when the New Year's Eve countdown happens tonight," she laughed.

"Indeed, everyone does like to gather to watch that ball drop. We humans have been doing every year for about two hundred years now," Mike laughed.

Nick and Liz smirked in agreement. Mike then turned back to Nick and Val.

"But anyway, you say you'll be sticking around the states for a few days like us? Maybe we can meet up somewhere and catch up, just like old times," Mike said