Translate Nodes

Written by dweam

A highly anticipated piece of technology that's been dreamed of by all races ever since they encountered different languages. While the current nodes aren’t quite up to the fantisfal standard, they are still very useful and almost a necessity if you want to immerse yourself in a planet’s culture. While the Yentang Corporation products are still the most widespread brand, their quality and utility is overshadowed by the high-in-demand somur manufactured translate nodes, accidently making the Mother Fleet a competitor in the market. Translate Nodes are usually just shaped like, well, a node. They are usually sleek in design, with a touch screen to select the two languages being converted in a conversation. The more expensive ones are inserted directly into the ear, though due to their smaller size the amount of languages available are less. Ear nodes also tend to be unreliable with with the sound output and translations, but rich people still buy them anyway as a proof of concept. Typical. The somur nodes are standard on the motherships and are gifted to every somuran permanently leaving the fleet. There is only one per somuran, so spares are rare, and usually sold at a high price in auctions or the black market. This particular model of translate nodes is on a little more physical side, with buttons and arms protruding from the side, and generally looking very confusing and complicated. However, with each button you can select if the language is tonal, romance, usage of clicks, and any other aspect that makes up a spoken dialect. The somur nodes are designed to piece together the translations through exposure and context clues, which virtually none of the other known space models were designed to do, instead leaving that to actual linguistics. Compared to other models and their limited dictionary, the somur translate nodes are a dream come true for explorers and diplomats. Still doesn’t mean that the somuran scientists will willingly give out the blueprints though. God dammit somur, share your cool stuff already.