- Sophon: By the time we do, you will have long surpassed us. You will destroy our fleet and then come back and destroy our world to make sure we never threaten you again. This is not a conquest. It is a funeral procession.
- Thomas Wade: Unless you figure out a way to disarm us. To keep us from moving forward. Have you?
- Sophon: Yes. We are going to kill your science. We will do it with our Sophons.
- Thomas Wade: You know how many people died building this canal? Nobody does. Best estimates are between five and 20,000. Malaria and yellow fever got most of them. But there were landslides, dynamite accidents, and drownings. It was a real shit show, but those poor fucks kept digging until it was done. Which do you think is more important to the human race, a canal or defeating an enemy coming to our world to take it for themselves?
- Da Shi: Still nothing?
- Eugene: It's only been two weeks.
- Da Shi: Only?
- Eugene: I told Wade. He wouldn't listen.
- Da Shi: How long is it gonna take? Don't think. Guess.
- Eugene: Assuming quantum encryption 20 years ahead of ours, median time would be 3.8 trillion years.
- Da Shi: Don't fuck about.
- Eugene: Hmm. Could strike it lucky. 3.8 billion years?
- Thomas Wade: Why? Why would they let us destroy their ship and kill your boyfriend?
- Ye Wenjie: Their reasons are beyond my ability to comprehend. That's all right. I know they're coming to save us from ourselves. I know they're the only ones who can.
- Thomas Wade: Be careful with what you know. That's where most people's troubles begin. I know some things too. Oh right. I did just say be careful with that. Still, I think you'd be interested in the things I know.
- Ye Wenjie: You're here to shatter my belief, but it's stronger than you are because they are stronger than you are.
- Thomas Wade: You've gone from "know" to "believe" in half a minute, but that's okay. Faith's good. I have faith too. Faith that when they get here, we're gonna wipe them out.
- Ye Wenjie: Your faith seems even more ridiculous to me than mine must to you.
- Thomas Wade: Ah, but that goes back to what I know. Remember that from half a minute ago? Things you'd like to know. Like why did they let us destroy their ship and kill their followers and break up your party and arrest you?
- Ye Wenjie: Am I under arrest? What crime have I committed?
- Sophon: The universe has more dimensions than the three we occupy. They are hidden, folded up far too small for us to see. But we have the technology to unfold them. We summon energies you cannot imagine and focus them on a single proton. When we unfold its higher dimensions... even a tiny proton becomes something very large indeed. We make a mind as large as a world. Sophon, are you awake? Awake and aware. I understand my purpose. I am ready to return to my original size. Please proceed. We used all our resources to make four Sophons. Two pairs of two. Each pair is entangled, connected on the quantum level. Two remain with us. The other two, we've sent to you. Everything they see and hear, we see and hear at the same time. Even when they are light-years apart. A proton has virtually no mass. Accelerating them to nearly light speed is easy. Even you can do that. They entered your solar system months ago. We sent them to your planet, to the places where your best minds explore reality at its most fundamental level. And we will destroy the science that could defeat us. The answers to your questions will become chaotic and meaningless. The universe will remain a mystery to you forever. In place of truth, we give you miracles. We wrap your world in illusions. We make you see what we want you to see. We are everywhere. Anywhere. Always watching. Learning all your secrets. Uncovering your lies. And we will teach you how to fear again.