Artifact - Tapa blanda

A small cube of black rock has been unearthed in a 3500-year-old Mycenaean tomb.

An incomprehensible object in an impossible place; its age,its purpose, and its origins are unknown.

Its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue, theft andespionage, and is pushing nations to the brink of war.

Its substance has scientists baffled. And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth.

It is mystery and madness -- an enigma with no equal in recordedhistory. It is mankind's greatest discovery ... and worst nightmare.

It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next.

An incomprehensible object in an impossible place; its age, its purpose, and its origins are unknown.

Its discovery has unleashed a global storm of intrigue, theft and espionage, and is pushing nations to the brink of war.

Its substance has scientist baffled. And the miracle it contains does not belong on this Earth.

It is mystery and madness-an enigma with no equal in recorded history. It is mankind's greatest discovery. . .and worst nightmare.

It may have already obliterated a world. Ours is next.

Gregory Benford is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and was Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. and in 1995 received the Lord Prize for contributions to sciences. His research encompasses both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. His fiction has won many awards, including the Nebula Award for his novel Timescape. Dr. Benford makes his home in Laguna Beach, California.