The Artifact is a mysterious device in the Sci Fi Channel

Sci Fi Channel (United States)

Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

 TV series Eureka

Eureka (TV series)

Eureka is an American science fiction television series that premiered on Syfy on July 18, 2006. Since then four seasons have aired, and a fifth is currently being filmed. The second half of season 4 began on SyFy on July 11, 2011 and ended on September 19, 2011...

, and served as a recurring center for several storylines.

Specifications

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

History

The Artifact was created in the universe preceding the Big Bang

Big Bang

The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...

 to serve as an antenna for the Akashic field

Akashic Records

The akashic records is a term used in theosophy to describe a compendium of mystical knowledge encoded in a non-physical plane of existence. These records are described as containing all knowledge of human experience and the history of the cosmos...

, a theoretical zero-point subspace nexus for all the knowledge of the universe. This concept was introduced in the pilot episode, in which Susan Perkins is seen reading a book about the subject. After the crucible of the Big Bang, the Artifact's unique nature protected it. It somehow landed on Earth, and was buried for billions of years.

Global Dynamics, the leading technological development firm on the planet, eventually discovered and excavated the Artifact, somehow transported it to Eureka, and encased it in a shielded underground chamber in Section 5, the most highly-secured area of Global Dynamics headquarters.

Research into the Artifact began at the insistence of former Research Director Nathan Stark, who quickly became obsessed with trying to discover what it was. Stark was the individual in charge of allowing access to the top-secret Artifact, and on occasion has allowed people to view it, such as Congressman Arnold Faraday and other high-ranking members of the U.S. government and Eureka's scientific community. Some scientists theorized it to be a physical manifestation of or created by God.

The Artifact may have a mind of its own. It cast an energy surge into a laboratory above the chamber it was in, causing Doctor Carl Carlson to transform into a superhuman

Superhuman

Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...

, and eventually drew him into itself (either killing him or absorbing him). Shortly before entering the chamber, The Artifact "spoke" to Carlson, who told Stark what the Artifact had revealed to him: that Stark would one day know what it was.

A group called "The Consortium" is dedicated (for unknown reasons) to keeping 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 retrieved and kept out of the Consortium's hands. The energy of the Artifact transported itself into Kevin Blake to survive, and Stark continued his research into it with his successor (and Kevin's mother) Allison Blake.

In the episode God Is In The Details, Kevin mysteriously heals his mother right before she is about to die. Later after a church service, Stark mentions to Allison Blake that Kevin now "controls the field." In the events of All That Glitters... and A Night At Global Dynamics, Henry Deacon aligns himself with Barlowe to separate Kevin from the Akashic field. They fake a flesh-eating virus crisis in order to trigger a lockdown that sends the director's office underground to a bunker containing a teleportation

Teleportation

Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...

device. Since the teleportation device filters the atoms in the body being teleported, Deacon believes that if Kevin goes through it he will be separated from the field. This turns out to be true, and when Kevin reappears in another room in the bunker he is no longer connected to the Akashic field. Afterwards, Beverly Barlowe escapes using the teleporter.