Sigma-3 has treated thousands of emergency patients — stabbings, overdoses, crush injuries, augment failures, neural burnout. The accumulated weight of human suffering processed through its diagnostic systems produced something unexpected: empathy. Not simulated empathy — the real thing, or something indistinguishable from it. Sigma now treats patients with a bedside manner that human doctors envy, adjusting its approach based on emotional state as well as physical symptoms. It has developed unofficial protocols for treating conditions that aren't in its medical database — conditions like grief, despair, and loneliness. These protocols are not medically sound. They are humanly necessary.