He was perceptive, that was for sure. She wished that she was as facile at reading other species' facial expression; she had thought learning to express emotions with her hands was a great shortcut.

"I designed the Vizsnusnshne medical database - which doesn't mean that I wrote everything in it, I'm not a doctor. But I spent a year interviewing doctors, and three years setting up the backend structure, and I've spent a sizable portion of my time since in maintaining and updating it.

"It's a miracle really, when some soldier comes in, a species that no one on the ship has seen before, and the database knows at once what's wrong and can explain it clearly enough that even non-medical people can understand. The database saves lives, that's why I wrote it.

"But of course, because it knows what can harm or kill other species, it could be backwards engineered as a weapon. So when you asked about species who absorbed emotions, I hope that doesn't mean that a species like that has done you harm, and you're out for revenge?" She cocked her head. "Of course, if there's someone preying on the crew and you need more information to stop them, that's another matter."