Suppose the content of the tapes are not as important as the sequences of the tapes sent and not sent? Is there any significance in the numbers:
Tapes sent 1 3 4 6 7 10 12 Tapes missing 2 5 8 11 13 14 15 16
For example there are sixteen hex digits in a galactic coordinate string. If the decimal digits above are converted to hex and arranged ‘properly’ do we get a significant NMS location to go to?
converting 2 5 8 11 13 14 15 16 to hex would result in 02 05 08 0B 0D 0E 0F 10… not particularly interesting. Most likely the remaining tapes simply have yet to be sent or have been lost somehow