1. A method for use in a distributed storage processing module, the method comprising: receiving a request to retrieve a data segment stored as encoded data slices in a distributed storage network (DSN), wherein the data segment is encoded using a dispersed error coding function to produce the encoded data slices, wherein a threshold number of the encoded data slices is sufficient to reconstruct the data segment; determining whether at least the threshold number of encoded data slices is cached in temporary storage associated with a distributed storage processing module; when the at least the threshold number of encoded data slices is cached in the temporary storage, retrieving the at least the threshold number of encoded data slices from the temporary storage; and when the at least the threshold number of encoded data slices is not cached in the temporary storage, retrieving one or more of the encoded data slices from the DSN to obtain the at least the threshold number of encoded data slices.