A storage network operates by: issuing a read threshold number of read slice requests to storage units of a set of storage units, where the read threshold number of read slice requests identifies a read threshold number of encoded slices of a set of encoded slices corresponding to a data segment; when one or more other encoded data slices of the read threshold number of encoded slices is not received within a time threshold, facilitating receiving a decode threshold number of encoded slices of the set of encoded slices; decoding the decode threshold number of encoded slices to produce recovered encoded data slices, wherein a number of the recovered encoded data slices corresponds to the read threshold number minus a number of the encoded slices received within the time threshold; and outputting the recovered encoded data slices and the encoded slices of the read threshold number of encoded slices received within the time threshold.