Nine Lives, is a fine, touching and thought-provoking delineation of cloning. Martin and Pugh arrive on the planet Libra, which is a seismic hotbed, to set up a mining operation. The working team that follows them consist of 10 people, five males and five females, all cloned from the same person - John Chow. Being clones of the same block the ten work, think and live like one. “Think of it,” Owen murmurs to Martin, “to be oneself ten times over. Nine seconds for every motion, nine ayes on every vote.” During a mining operation Libra experiences one of its most violent quakes. Owen and Martin are able to save only one of the clones. The survivor Kaph Chow is racked with horrible "nightmares" as he literally suffers the deaths of his nine clones. At the end of it and even bigger nightmare awaits Kaph — for the first time he has to learn how to be alone without nine similar selves around him.