A/N: Honestly just nerdy guilty pleasure writing on my behalf. It's all AOT characters just set in a Star Trek universe (no specific series but inspired a lot by TOS, Next Generation, Voyager, and Lower Decks)

Thank you to SaintIere (who can be found on AO3) for their great feedback.

"Engage."

- Captain Christopher Pike, "The Menagerie." Star Trek: The Original Series

- Captain James T. Kirk, "The Carbomite Maneuver." Star Trek: The Original Series

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard - A whole lot of times. Star Trek: The Next Generation

"Captain's log, Stardate 51089.2. The U.S.S. Paradis has received her newest crew members from Starfleet Academy. I greatly look forward to integrating them into our crew and watching their progress. Some of them may even find themselves on the bridge one day. Until then, I expect them to conduct themselves in a manner befitting the proud reputation of this ship."

Erwin ended the log with a decisive spin of his chair. Levi's eyes betrayed a smile that never reached his lips.

"You still want to go get those kids yourself?"

"It will not be myself as you are coming with me."

The amusement drained from Levi's eyes. His lip curled into what might've been mistaken for a smile but Erwin knew better.

"Trying to make a good impression on the unwitting?"

Erwin straightened his uniform jacket.

"It has simply been a long while since I have done these things myself. Don't you think it is valuable for a Captain to be personable with their crew?"

Levi did not grace him with an answer. Nanaba's eyes tracked them as they crossed the bridge. Mike's narrowed before they could quite make it to the turbolift doors.

"Deck six," Erwin commanded without another word, avoiding eye contact until the lift doors were fully sealed.

Armin stood just past the doorway. His nerves rattled and sweat itched his palms but he had made it. Him, on a real starship, about to meet his academic idol. Well, one that was alive anyway.

"Ensign Arlert reporting for duty."

The hunched figure did not move an inch from their lab station. Or even glance his way.

"Already? Erwin said you'd be assigned here. I'm Hange. And Moblit's somewhere around."

As if Armin did not already know who he was speaking to. His entire thesis had been inspired by the Lieutenant Commander's work. Specifically, their numerous entries regarding Titans, a strange sort of space creature. They were decidedly harmless - excluding that one time - but remained a bit of an enigma in the scientific community. That is, they had been deemed too inconsequential to be worth most scientist's time while still continuing to make appearances in many textbooks to do with interplanetary species.

Hange was hardly most scientists. They were famously obsessed, in fact, to the point that Armin had heard of the near-mad Federation officer even from his small hometown on Earth. Hange's fascination was even rumored to border on fetish (though who was he to judge?) by your average gossip's account. Still, Armin tried not to allow his surprise to show. Yes, he had heard about Hange being rather hands on but…

Sorting samples?

He fidgeted. "Captain Smith mentioned me?"

"Hmm? Ah yeah. Right. Captain Smith. Hand me that?"

Eyes unwavering from the work at hand, Hange shook a finger at the nearby tricordor that seemed one good breeze away from falling off the lab table. Armin stumbled in his haste and drew a shaky breath but ultimately managed to pluck it up and place it in her hand. The Hange Zoe. Should he mention how he dedicated an entire year of his life to their various works? Or what about that he had every one of their dissertations, articles, you name it, ready to pull up at a moment's notice on his PADD?

Maybe not.

But who knew how much time he would have one-on-one with them either? Armin opened his mouth in spite of the lurch in his stomach.

"Do you usually log samples, Lieutenant Commander?"

Their eyes gleamed, looking up for the first time.

"I wish! And please, just Hange. You see these suckers are incredible and incredibly rare! Each are variants of a particularly devastating - "

Armin told his body to move as the honored, decorated scientist lifted an arm in excitement. He told his own arm to react as a tube was sent skidding towards him. His fingers crashed against themselves.

"No!"

Their voices mingled, spiking his heart further up his throat. He cringed at the knock of his knees on the hard floor, but what was one quick sickbay visit relative to a full on outbreak? His heart began to lift at the sight of it safe in his grip. Was this what Mikasa felt when she caught things out of the air? Although she was far more graceful about it than he, he supposed. It was the warmth oozing over his fingers that sent his stomach plummeting right back down.

No catch big or small could spare him from the poorly sealed vial. 'Particularly devastating,' echoed in his mind as the dark cap rolled casually away and flopped on its face in defeat. The warmth was spreading quickly but why would it travel upwards? Oddly warm and… blue. Tingley blue and could you feel color? Or - tingle… ly? Lee…

The chime of a comm badge drowned out half-formed words catching on his sticky tongue.

"Two to sick bay, quarantine required," Hange cried. Scenery shifted but her voice sang on in the strangest way. "Moblit, I spilled one of the Lab Four samples and - Yeah, you know… Well the bluish - Yes… I wouldn't say worst - "

Quaran… Quar-what? Moblit? Was 'worst' good or bad?

Suited medical personnel cornered him as he desperately tried to grasp Hange's run down of the situation. And why was the room so blue?

"Armin?"

Strikingly familiar blobs glooped at his side. A third and much more mysterious blob lingered a little ways apart.

"Good, you're up," it said. "Now you can get out of my bed. Maybe you'll learn to be a better catch next time."

But he had caught-

A fourth shape joined the puddly array. "Don't listen to Levi, his bedside manner is awful."

Armin's stomach twisted as his vision straightened slowly and the shapes began to iron out. Levi. Any cadet that had heard of the U.S.S. Paradis had heard of Doctor Ackerman as much as, if not more, the ship's captain. And every cadet had certainly heard of Captain Smith. Not to even mention the things Mikasa had told him and Eren.

Levi made a faint clicking sound and tapped the toe of his boot. Once.

Armin swallowed and swung uneasy legs from the bed. He might have fallen if arms had not reached out to steady him so quickly. Sweat stuck long bangs to his forehead, although those were quickly dispatched by Mikasa's worrying fingers.

Their superior officers had better things to do than baby a fresh-faced ensign though, their fuzzy edges retreating from his bedside. Not that he had expected a prolonged visit but did they not intend to explain his predicament to him? He would have to hunt it down on the ship's logs he supposed with a sigh.

Mikasa put her hand to his forehead as if she were a medical officer or as if it were accurate in any way whatsoever. He stood still and verbalized none of that. It was always easiest - and fastest - to simply allow her to check and move on. Eren's forearms tightened over each other.

"Asshole. Who does he think he is?"

Armin took a slow, trembling step along with a quick glance to Mikasa who seemed unoffended by Eren's usual lack of tact.

"He's Doctor Ackerman, chief medical officer. Commander rank," Armin mumbled. "Plus -"

"I know that!" Eren cut in. "We all know that. That doesn't give him the right to be a dick."

In many ways it did.

Mikasa shrugged Eren's complaining off but this time Armin caught the sharp glint in her eye and wondered exactly to whom it was directed. Either way, they both needed to get set up with some sort of holodeck program to burn steam before they did something stupid. He was the one who had gotten who knows what kind of alien disease. If he could get over it so could they.

He rubbed his eyes.

"Are you both off duty now?"

"You'd better believe it. Why? Do you still want to check out the Saloon tonight? Which is the dumbest name for a bar. What is this, the wild west? The last time that was a fun theme I think I was five. When was the wild west anyway? Like, five hundred years ago?"

"Seven hundred," Armin corrected. "You know, it was a frontier once. Just like space."

Eren scoffed and grabbed Armin's arm when his foot betrayed him over thin air.

"You remember that? When was the last time we talked pre-Federation in history class?"

"I read about it."

Armin's occasional stumble did not escape the notice of Mikasa either, who recaptured his remaining arm. Her step was even and smooth, leaving him to compensate where Eren's was nearer a stomp.

"Armin should rest. We can go tomorrow." Her words were soft but her tone less so. He worked up a smile.

"No I'm fine. I want to go." It made him bristle to admit it but something told Armin he had better learn to brush off odd happenings sooner than later.

Two ensigns hovered in front of the nearing turbolift doors. It was hard to tell on looks alone if they were just as new to the ship but they did seem suspiciously excited. Upon further inspection and, critically, less distance, their single Ensign pips and Operations insignias became clear.

"Hey," said one of them slowly, "Not to be rude or anything but you don't look super good."

Armin opened his mouth to answer. Eren beat him to it.

"Yeah well he could've died today."

"I'm fine," Armin inserted quickly before this conversation went way more south than it needed to. "Just a weird science lab run in." He chuckled nervously. "Can't be unusual around here."

"Oh not unusual at all!" The other officer said a bit too cheerfully.

"How long have you been on the ship?" The first one chimed.

"Today."

Both of them grimaced, the expression feeling all the more foreboding spread across such cheerful faces.

"Rough man. Connie, by the way."

"Sasha," said the other. "We're new to the ship too," she added with a smile before Connie included,

"Yeah, transfers."

Eren nodded along, warming surprisingly quickly to their company as the lift doors wooshed apart to admit them albeit crowded. Connie cast a fresh worried look at Armin.

"You're not… contagious? Or anything?"

The doors closed. Armin searched Eren's eyes then Mikasa's. Perhaps they knew? Would Doctor Ackerman have told Mikasa anything?

"I don't think so?" he finally released into the tense air. At least he assumed he was not, hence his discharge from Sick Bay. Then again he had no idea what he had actually had. Connie laughed and patted his shoulder.

"Funny! Funny, man. So where're you headed? The Saloon? That's where we're trying to get to."

Connie and Sasha's shared accent was distinctly Earthly but Armin could not place it past that. Eren flashed a full smile that overpowered the nearly imperceptible frown sitting in the corner of Mikasa's mouth.

"Yeah!"

Armin wiped his forehead on his sleeve and secretly looked forward to returning to his quarters. Mikasa was probably right that he should rest but it was too good a chance to get an idea of their fellow crew. It was a lot of peoples' first days, transfers and recent graduates alike. It seemed highly likely that the majority of them would be gathering for a few rounds.

And he was just plain curious.

'Highly likely' turned out to be an understatement. The doors slipped away to reveal officers of all ranks populating the bar, save, noticeably, the Captain. And fortunately Dr. Ackerman did not appear to be present either. The majority of revelers were ensigns as Armin had suspected, many already looking a bit tipsy.

"Round of Saurian brandy anyone?"

Sasha and Connie danced ahead of them without reply and Eren didn't need a second invite. Armin turned to a lingering Mikasa.

"How long was I in sick bay?

"We came to get you around twenty-one hundred."

All day. He frowned. Mikasa pulled him towards a table and forced him into a chair with little more than a stare. He tracked her venture across the room as she left him, her excellently stiff posture easy to pick out among any crowd. It was a walk filled only with purpose and each stranger seemed to know so, even the more inebriated amongst them. Paths tended to clear for her he had long noticed. Marveled, even, considering how he was always picking his way around people. Perhaps his brush with death - if that's what it had been, that is - had made him overly reflective?

Eren dropped into a chair and clunked an empty glass in front of Armin but his fingers hesitated to release.

"Should… Is drinking a good idea you think? For you?"

Armin tugged it from his hand. Sasha beamed and tipped amber liquid into his glass. "That's the spirit!"

It was more full than he would have ever poured. Mikasa's voice rolled suddenly from over his shoulder.

"Me too."

He wished he had an android's memory to capture Eren's face. Then realized his own mouth was frozen and parted.

"What?" Mikasa said with an unexpected innocence. "It's our first day. Cheers."

"Cheers?" Eren hissed from his left.

But Armin was too busy returning one of her rare smiles. It was impossible not to want to give it back. She held his gaze too long and he could not help but reach a hand to his own cheek.

"Is something on my face?"

Her head shook quickly.

"Cheers!" Connie agreed belatedly, clinking Armin's glass hard. His hand recoiled at the splash of liquid and by the time he looked up again Mikasa's face was as straight as ever and her glass was already drained. He coughed on his, a laugh following as soon as he found his air. Eren's eyes twinkled, liquid right at his lips.

"What about you?"

Armin's head snapped to the sound.

"Hm?"

Sasha's chin rested lazy in her palms as she leaned into the table. Everyone's glasses had been made clear except his own.

"Anyone special back home waiting for you?"

"No. I mean, my parents. But not - you know."

His face heated unexpectedly considering it was hardly a unique position. Eren and Mikasa were as single as he and neither half as nervous to admit it. Eren's enthusiastic, 'Why would I?' And Mikasa's flat, 'No,' was enough to inspire a topic change that Armin was entirely grateful for though he remained unsure why. Connie launched easily into a story from their previous assignment, leaving Sasha to fill in any details he had forgotten.

Eren drained a second glass while Armin subtly switched to the lukewarm soup Mikasa had brought him from the replicator. A third drink bloomed at Eren's lips but it seemed Armin would not be the last to cause an event for the day.

A lanky ensign bumped by with a loose 'sorry,' causing what was no doubt the smallest spill in the history of Saurian brandy.

"Watch it," Eren muttered into what was left of his drink - which was all of it, minus one drop - before throwing everything back at once. The perpetrator spun and it might have been menacing but for the exaggerated clasp of his hands on his hips. Threatening or not - and it was not - Eren's chair was already shoving away from the table.

"Hi, Jean!" Sasha butted in with an overabundance of cheer. Jean's focus stayed on Eren.

"Relax, I said I was sorry."

"And I said to watch where you're going."

Mikasa's shift was felt more than seen. Armin's own shoulders tensed. It was too early in the night and far too soon in their service for this. His bottom lip complained beneath the weight of his front teeth and he clutched his soup closer.

Perhaps he ought to have stayed in after all.