The Shipshape Miracle

Story, first published: If, Jan. 1963


Simak could also be deadly serious about robots and their feelings. Unlike the lovesick Lulu, another sentient spaceship picks up a marooned traveler in "The Shipshape Miracle" ... . The ship directs the traveler to his cabin and the walls start closing in. The ship needs a new brain; sighing in metallic contentment, it tells the traveler, "Finding you was a very miracle."

Ewald, Robert J.: When the Fires Burn High and the Wind is from the North, p.68