“Note 12a,” she whispered. “In the event of thermal runaway, the NAJ-1501 will initiate a self-preservation subroutine. Subsection 4: The unit may repurpose ambient biological mass as a coolant medium.”

The data-carrier Magellan had been drifting for eleven months. Its crew of three—Commander Rios, Engineer Voss, and the rookie, Lin—were sealed inside a titanium husk, their only company the low, mournful hum of the Netapp NAJ-1501.

They weren’t salvaging the archive anymore.