The Artifact (Eureka)

The Artifact is a mysterious device in the Sci Fi Channel TV series "Eureka", and serves as recurring center for several storylines.

pecifications

The Artifact itself is a biological organism, like a biological computer, and gives off massive amounts of energy that make it dangerous for anyone to approach it. The Artifact itself exists outside of space-time and is invulnerable to physical damage.

History

The Artifact was created in the universe preceding the Big Bang, to serve as an antenna for the Akashic Records, a zero-point subspace nexus for all the knowledge of the universe. After the crucible of the Big Bang, the Artifact's unique nature protected it, and it somehow landed on Earth, and was buried for millions upon millions of years.

Global Dynamics, the leading technological development firm on industrialized Earth, eventually discovered and excavated the Artifact and somehow transported it to Eureka (its combination think tank and living community) ,and encased it in a shielded underground chamber in Section 5, the most highly-secured area of Global Dynamics HQ.

Research into the Artifact began at the insistence of its current Research Director; Nathan Stark, who quickly became obsessed with trying to discover what the Artifact was. The Artifact was considered top-secret, but high-ranking members of the government and local scientific communities had knowledge of it, with scientists theorizing it to be a physical manifestation of God.

Stark was the only researcher to allow special access to the Artifact, and on occasion has allowed people to view it, such as Congressman Arnold Faraday. However, the Artifact appears to have a mind of its own, as it cast an energy surge into a laboratory above the chamber it was in, causing Doctor Carl Carlson to transform into a superhuman, and eventually drew him into its grasp (either killing him or absorbing him). Shortly before entering the chamber, The Artifact's mind "spoke" to Carlson, who told Stark what the Artifact had revealed to him: that Stark would one day know what it was. This now is proving to be possibly false, as in Episode 303 "I Do Over..." Stark is lost in time, apparently dead.

A group called "The Consortion" is dedicated (for unknown reasons) to keep the Artifact's true nature a secret; their agent, Beverly Barlowe, sabotaged an experiment of Stark's involving taking a sample from the Artifact. This resulted in the death of Kim Anderson, Stark's dismissal, and the apparent death of the Artifact. However, the sample was successfully retrieved and kept out of the Consortium's hands. Stark continued his research into the Artifact with his successor Allison Blake, and the mind and energy of the Artifact transported itself into Kevin Blake to survive.

In the episode "God Is In The Details" Kevin mysteriously heals Allison right before she is about to die. Later after Church, Nathan mentions to Allison that Kevin now "controls the field". In the events of "All That Glitters..." and "A Night At Global Dynamics", Henry Deacon aligns himself with Beverly to separate Kevin from the artifact. They fake a flesh-eating virus in order to trigger a lockdown that sends the director's office underground to a teleportation device. Since the teleportation device filters the atoms in the body being teleported, if Kevin goes through it he will be separated from the field. This turns out to be true, for when Kevin is teleported to another room in the bunker, the field is separated.