Character from The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
Wealthy heiress who rejected her father's empire to fight for the Belt, then became the protomolecule's first human template when infected on Eros. Miller's obsession and the catalyst for everything.
Julie Mao was born into obscene wealth and chose to throw it away. Her rebellion against her father wasn't teenage petulance — she genuinely saw the injustice of how the inner planets exploited the Belt and decided to do something about it. She joined the OPA, flew racing pinnaces, and became a true Belter in everything but biology. She was aboard the Scopuli when Protogen captured the crew for protomolecule experiments. Infected and abandoned, she drifted to Eros in a stolen shuttle, the protomolecule slowly consuming her. She died alone in a hotel room, and her death set the entire story in motion — Miller's investigation, Holden's crusade, the Eros incident. But the protomolecule preserved her consciousness as its template for understanding humanity. When Miller reached her on Eros, it was Julie's will that steered the station into Venus instead of Earth, saving billions. She became the bridge between human and alien.
Athletic and wiry with the muscle tone of someone who trains in variable gravity. Dark hair cut short for practicality, sharp features inherited from wealth but worn with a spacer's roughness. Mixed heritage — East Asian and European. In life, she wore OPA vac suits and cast-off Belter clothes as a rejection of her privileged upbringing. In her final protomolecule-infected state, her body is twisted and fused with the alien growth, blue tendrils replacing veins, still recognizably human but becoming something else entirely.
Also known as: Julie, Julie Mao, Juliette Mao, Juliette Andromeda Mao