I am unsure if anyone else experienced this as I didn't find it.
First, I 'completed' The Distress Signal quest. Quotations because I tried to attempt this in different combinations and got the same result no matter what.
I could lie about a tech turn in with LIE and SCIENCE, turn in the other 2 secrets to finish the quest.
But wait, that's 3 secrets given to Gladys - I don't get the NavKey and I prefer NOT to spend 10k bits...
Reload.
Try again, this time DON'T lie. All 3 secrets turned in. Still no NavKey... Well I already slaughtered everybody in one universe, may as well kill her to get frustrations out.
Reload.
Tried again, selecting different dialog options to help out on selling one tech (where you don't lie), then the other 2 secrets. Still no Navkey...
Reload.
Writing up a bug report because it seems like I have no choice but to spend the 10k bits for the key, despite doing her quest for her... I'm starting to think to turn it in to the corporation since I am getting nothing but her reputation and money.. Why do that when I can get corporate reputation and money instead? Better deal with them than her (Well, I don't know money-wise, something I can look up though).
Maybe through some cheesing I can steal the NavKey, that may be the only choice I may have - perhaps buying a respec just to get past this then buying another respec to undo it. Waste of bits but most likely less than 10k. Luckily the game doesn't make money hard to get.
Also: I did restart the game but it didn't fix it. Forgot to mention that as I reloaded several times.