Long Shot

'''Vinge, Vernor. "Long Shot."' Analog'' Aug. 1972. Rpt. Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Second Annual Collection (1972). Lester del Rey, ed. New York: Dutton, 1973.

A conscious, computer-run spaceship carries a fertilized human ovum; hence the AI ship is a literal mechanical womb (summary from Warrick 180).[] Cf. and contrast A. C. Clarke's 2001 and Songs of Distant Earth, C. Simak's "Target Generation," and J. Williamson's Manseed—all cited under Fiction.