Basement Level 5 has the smallest footprint in the expansive and hidden basement complex under the Corona Tower. Exiting the main elevators leads directly into holding chambers for various animals (mammalian, avian, and aquatic) used in the human-hybrid project's testing.

Also on Level 5 are the experimental results that are alive but unable to function independently. Many are intelligent, but often they are not. They are retained as resource material until they are no longer needed when they are either euthanized or sent to the Tower's sister facility being built in the isolated and forbidding wastelands of northern Canada.

Additional temporary living quarters for failed hybrids who are functional but no longer useful to the human-hybrid project's ultimate goals is reached deeper within the labyrinth of corridors on Level 5. This portion of the facility is accessed through double glass doors hermetically sealed from the area housing the animal cages, with positive pressure from within the housing area to prevent anything outside from getting inside. The spaces inside are living quarters of a sort, but spartan and with a temporary feel. No one remains for long on Level 5 before being harvested or shipped out to other more appropriate venues. 

Level 5 also contains the underground power plant for Corona Tower. It is not on the building's plans (nor is the any of the basement, not in the way it is being used). The secretive power plant is designed to provide continual power to the building in case of a city power failure and to hide the massive power needs of the research facility. If the facility draws attention to itself, even in the amount of power it consumes . . . well, it's just better that it doesn't.

Garik Shayk first visits Basement Level 5 with his girlfriend Marisa Bruni in Book 1 of The Human-Hybrid Project, Shattered by Glass.

Garik's quarters in the Corona Tower research facility are quite spacious, if still a prison of sorts, one he cannot escape, with lockable doors and no outside access.

He is initially located on the B2 level in room 17. His room is equipped with a bedside table with a lamp and a clock. A small desk is across the room holding, and this surprises Garik when he first wakes in the room, a computer monitor and keyboard. There is even enough space for a small sofa facing a good-size television.

Across the room is Garik's bed, normally rumpled, with his shape still in the sheets, revealing a slender youth of average size.

He has a private bathroom with a full-length mirror, and one wall in the apartment is dominated by a large window covered by blinds. The view outside when Garik first wakes is of his family home in Russia, with the rock house his grandpapa built with his own hands, the tree Garik used to climb as a boy, and a bird that occasionally flies into the sky when the wind blows. It seems that through Garik's window, it is always summer, the grass is always green, and the same bird always flies from the same limb in the old tree.

Fancy that. He is in the basement of Corona Tower, after all.

We first visit Garik's quarters in Book 2 of The Human-Hybrid Project, Inside the Darkness.

The gaming center is located on Basement Level 2 near the quarters frequented by the successful hybrids in the human-hybrid project. It can be easily identified by its entrance of honed steel and bright red paint. A wide doorway opens to the corridor, revealing a darkened, pulsing interior filled with constant action.

As with any gaming center, there are virtual venues, standard gaming consoles, and role-playing alternatives. In addition, this gaming center caters to the skills developed by the humans who have undergone the hybridization process. 

Successful and unsuccessful hybrids (as long as they are functionally mobile) have access to the gaming center. Hybrids train on Basement Level 3, but they test their skills against one another on Level 2 in the gaming center.

There is one rule: No Blood. Many of the hybrids have been bred for deadliness. And it wouldn't do to kill off the cream of the research center's very expensive crop just as it ripens to full mental, physical, and financial readiness.

We first visit the gaming center in Book 2 of The Human-Hybrid Project, Inside the Darkness.

While the climbing wall is nominally on Basement Level 2, of necessity, it extends much higher than the Basement 2 ceiling might allow, punching up through Basement 1. Three walls of the upper portion of the climbing wall shaft consist of observation windows open to the lobby area of Basement 1. When advanced climbers are on the wall, it's not unusual for the military staff housed on Basement 1 to gather around to cheer them on, even if the climbers cannot hear them through the sound-insulated glass.

The undulating wall has several routes, each delineated by color. Red, blue, green, orange, pick your path with care. The grips are designed to challenge blue climbers most of all, while green or red are for those less skilled. 

The climbing wall is more than entertainment. The hybridized humans need to discover and develop their often unknown and experimental skills. Beyond the standard climbing routes on the wall are grips spaced in such a way that no normal human could possibly climb them.

Garik comes to realize that there might be a reason for that. It's just possible they were designed for people that are no longer normal.

We first visit the climbing wall in Book 2 of The Human-Hybrid Project, Inside the Darkness.

Garik Shayk is assigned an upgraded apartment when he defeats Justin Kurtew during a demonstration match in Book 3, The Mirror Cracks.

Garik's new apartment is a full one-bedroom with a kitchen, dining room, and walk-in closet. Located in Corona City, the apartment puts him in the midst of the action. He now lives around other hybrids, non-hybrid office workers, and not far from Devon Maye, the activities director for the research center's hybrid population.

One of the first things Garik does is have his ZBoard charging station hooked up in his new apartment. A electric skateboard to ride as often as he wants. How cool is that?

Garik receives his passkey to his new apartment in Book 3 of The Human-Hybrid Project, The Mirror Cracks.

  1. Experimental Hybridization Ward
  2. Devon Maye's Apartment