How does MINIMCOM see?

Imagine that Rome and Rei have invited you over for dinner. Aason is visiting with his grandparents. After dinner, Rome brings out a deck of cards and asks MINIMCOM to send down a livetar and the four of you play a card game. Rome deals and the three humans and one livetar pick up their cards and look at their hands. You and I know how the humans see. But what about MINIMCOM? How does he see? After all, within his bullet-shaped head, he has eyes slits but there is nothing behind them. We know that from both The Ark Lords and The Milk Run when some of our main characters actually get inside of the hollow livetar. So I ask you again, how does MINIMCOM see?

I have to tell you that up until last weekend, I had absolutely no idea. Nobody ever asked me and it would be a pretty dopey story if the livetars could not see but what is the engineering behind it? My brother Bruce comes to the rescue again.

Bruce explained to me (and I'm the author!) that the livetars are made up of constructors and the constructors are nothing but modified VIRUS units which in turn are nothing but modified star-probes. Those star-probes have a variety of sensors but we only need worry about the light detecting ones. Essentially, the entire livetar is just one giant series of single pixel cameras. MINIMCOM the computer/starship is flooded with light detection from every angle. The only place he does not have light coming in is from the eye slits. So he pieces together the information from everywhere else and synthesizes what the eye slits would see if they had anything there. Basically, MINIMCOM subtracts out everything and what is left is vision.

Phew. At least I have an explanation now. It might not be a good one but it is something. So does MINIMCOM have a mind? Could Rome or Aason enter into that mind? I'll give that a shot tomorrow.