# Dr. Tavanda Ruun

Computational cognitive scientist

A scientist whose work makes her the subject of the Rebel Ascendant’s extraction assignment.

![Illustrative portrait of Dr. Tavanda Ruun.](https://emissary.mdscur.com/art/ruun.webp)

Dr. Tavanda Ruun · Illustrative artwork

Dr. Tavanda Ruun is a computational cognitive scientist. Her work has made her important enough for the crew of the [Rebel Ascendant](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/rebel-ascendant/) to be sent into occupied [Clonmel](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/clonmel/) to retrieve her.

## Scientific work

Ruun’s expertise places her at the meeting point between evidence and interpretation. The first-contact problem cannot be resolved by noticing something unusual alone; someone has to determine what the observations support and what remains uncertain.

At [Agartha](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/agartha/), the instruments and telemetry available to [Sam Rothrock](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/sam-rothrock/) provide another setting for that investigation. Their work combines close attention to a signal with the difficulty of knowing what kind of source could produce it.

## A person within an assignment

To the crew, Ruun first appears as the person a mission has been organized to extract. Her presence brings the knowledge behind that assignment into their immediate lives. The novel’s questions of protection and authority therefore concern her as a person as well as a scientist.

FOLLOW THE CONNECTIONS

## Related articles

- [The mission to retrieve her The Clonmel extraction](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/clonmel-extraction/)

- [Extraction commander Kaid Sidorov](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/kaid-sidorov/)

- [A fellow investigator Sam Rothrock](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/sam-rothrock/)

- [First contact Elesylis](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/elesylis/)

### Also connected from

[Agartha ↗](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/agartha/)[Clonmel ↗](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/clonmel/)[Personhood and possession ↗](https://emissary.mdscur.com/encyclopedia/personhood-and-possession/)

## Reading references

- Geometry of Grace — Reader orientation
- Geometry of Grace — Chapters 1 and 3

Introduction view omits plot outcomes. Interpretive articles are readings of the fiction.