The pattern is clearly meant to be more than just data too, because they have used previous transporter logs when they need a healthy snapshot to compare to a crewmate who is ill. It seems to be some kind of superstitious energy reserve that is that person, and no you can’t just siphon some juice out of the reactor and use previous scan data for reasons that are generally presented as technical ones, but could really only logically be ethical ones.
The pattern is clearly meant to be more than just data too, because they have used previous transporter logs when they need a healthy snapshot to compare to a crewmate who is ill. It seems to be some kind of superstitious energy reserve that is that person, and no you can’t just siphon some juice out of the reactor and use previous scan data for reasons that are generally presented as technical ones, but could really only logically be ethical ones.