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character

Clarissa Mao

Peaches · Clarissa · Melba Koh

Smuggled into the Rocinante in a cargo crate, Clarissa tentatively becomes the apprentice Amos wants the crew to accept despite her past violence.

Story so far

After the danger at Luna docks, Clarissa Mao allows Amos Burton to move her from the Zhang Guo to the Rocinante hidden in a freight crate. She emerges in the cargo bay to an alarmed Alex Kamal, who knows exactly who she is and refuses to pretend that her earlier status as a prisoner makes this harmless. Clarissa offers only a tentative greeting, acutely aware that every person aboard has reason to fear or hate her.

Amos tells the others that he intends to make her his apprentice and add technical redundancy to the crew. The proposal is not yet accepted by Holden, and Clarissa's history of killing innocents and attempting to murder the Rocinante family remains an unhealed fact. Naomi's request for immunity and potential future clemency creates a narrow possibility that Clarissa's life will be judged in the changed conditions of the crisis rather than solely by the prison sentence she fled.

Appearance

A thin gaunt adult woman with huge expressive eyes and long lank hair, wearing an oversized battered survival outfit; her face is ghost-pale and her ink-black eyes make her look fragile and alarming as she rises from the crate.

Role

Clarissa is a former prisoner seeking a place as a useful crew member while the victims and survivors of her violence must decide whether to let her have one.

Relationships

Amos Burton — Amos Burton hides Clarissa aboard the Rocinante and proposes taking her as his technical apprentice.
Alex Kamal — Alex Kamal sees Clarissa emerge from the crate and demands that Holden be told she is aboard without formal custody.
James Holden — James Holden has not yet decided whether the woman who tried to kill him and his crew can remain on his ship.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 9 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 23
  • Imprisoned with lethal body modifications, Clarissa meets Amos with hard-won remorse just as asteroids begin striking Earth.
Chapter 25
  • Clarissa turns fear and prison law into leverage, helping Amos convince guards to evacuate the shattered Pit.
Chapter 27
  • Clarissa reaches open air for the first time in years, saves Amos from Konecheck, and chooses Luna as their only possible escape.
Chapter 31
  • Clarissa's implants save Amos on ruined Earth, then leave her sick as she questions the morality of their survival.
Chapter 38
  • Clarissa turns an old family's private launchpad knowledge into an escape plan and helps Erich accept that Baltimore cannot be saved.
Chapter 40
  • Clarissa gets the group into Lake Winnipesaukee, turns old class ties into aid, and joins Amos to repair the only remaining shuttle.
Chapter 45
  • Clarissa helps repair and launch the Zhang Guo, sees Earth from orbit, and returns to the space she thought prison had taken from her forever.
Chapter 49
  • After reaching Luna, Clarissa fears renewed imprisonment until Amos convinces her that the old order cannot simply reclaim her.
Chapter 50
  • Smuggled into the Rocinante in a cargo crate, Clarissa tentatively becomes the apprentice Amos wants the crew to accept despite her past violence.
Character portrait