How exactly did Kirk and Co. speak to all those aliens???
My son has a favorite translation machine from the Japanese anime
"Doraemon". The title character, a robot cat, pulls a "Honyaku Konyaku"
out of his 4 dimensional pocket. Honyaku = translation / konyaku = a
delicious hard jelly made out of a root. Once someone eats this, they
can converse with anyone from anywhere in the universe...or history, if
they happen to be time travelling.
What other mystical translations machines are out there?