Anwei frowned. "That actually sounds almost familiar. You know, I can't remember the species name, but there was a couple on board the second ship I served on. Their names were Bitte and Chem, and they were married - their husbands weren't on the Fleet, they stayed home - and Bitte and Chem had to maintain this sort of copy of their spouses' emotions. An emotion print. It kept their connection to their spouses alive, and they needed that connection or they died.

"And Bitte died, and the doctors had to create a new emotion print, one that included the husbands and Bitte. And Chem was still alive when I transferred off the ship, so it must have worked...I'm sorry, that's the first thing that comes to me off the top of my mind. They didn't live off of emotions, but they needed it. The records of that treatment should be in the database - if I have it."