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Global Dynamics specialists attempt to remove a piece of the Artifact in "Once in a Lifetime".

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

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.

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, Oregon, 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, but would then have to accept the grim truth.

A select group of people, named "The Consortium", is dedicated (for unknown reasons) to keep the Artifact's true nature a secret, and as such ordered their agent; Beverly Barlowe, to sabotage Stark's experiment into stealing a sample from the Artifact. This resulted in the death of Kim Anderson, Stark's summary dismissal, and apparent death of the Artifact. However, the situation turned around when the sample was successfully retrieved and kept out of the Consortium's hands, Stark continuing his research into the Artifact with his successor Allison Blake, and the mind and energy of the Artifact transporting itself into Kevin Blake to survive.

In the epiode "God Is In The Details" Kevin mysteriously heals Allison right before she died. Later after Church, Nathan mentions to Allison that Kevin now "controls the field"

What awaits Kevin and the Artifact is unknown.