The Shipshape Miracle

"The Shipshape Miracle" by Clifford D. Simak is a science fiction tale of a stranded man's unexpected encounter with a sentient spaceship. Cheviot Sherwood is marooned on an empty planet, unaware he's surrounded by riches, when a living, thinking ship appears, offering him rescue. The ship, a blend of human and machine consciousness, seeks a companion in Sherwood, someone expendable that is not needed in space. As Sherwood contemplates this offer, the story presents questions of identity, and the merging of man and machine, ultimately challenging the notion of what it truly means to be human when faced with the chance of a miracle that might come at an enormous cost.