A Space Oddessey 2061 Book 3 Chapter 60: Midnight in the Plaza PART PART IX: 3001

A Space Oddessey 2061 Book 3 Chapter 60: Midnight in the Plaza PART PART IX: 3001

The famous building, towering in solitary splendour above the woods of central Manhattan, had changed little in a thousand years. It was part of history, and had been reverently preserved. Like all historic monuments, it had long ago been coated with a microthin layer of diamond, and was now virtually impervious to the ravages of time. Anyone who had attended early meetings of the General Assembly could never have guessed that more than a thousand years had passed. They might, however, have been intrigued by the featureless black slab standing in the Plaza, almost mimicking the shape of the UN building itself. If - like everyone else - they had reached out to touch it - they would have been puzzled by the strange way in which their fingers skittered over its ebon surface. But they would have been far more puzzled - indeed, completely overawed - by the transformation of the heavens. The last tourists had left an hour ago, and the Plaza was utterly deserted. The sky was cloudless, and a few of the …