Order all drones to ascend to 50 meters below surface (shallow enough for possible radio recovery, deep enough to avoid surface debris). Simultaneously, deploy a single passive sonobuoy to listen for drone propellers. Do not recall the ship's launch boat. Do not commit to a new course.

She issued the orders.

The fog lifted at dawn. The drones were recovered. The data was intact. And the software patch? It had a memory leak in the sensor-fusion module—exactly the kind of bug that only appears when multiple systems fail at once.

Elena looked at the fog outside the bridge windows. Then she looked at the fog inside her decision process.