Colonel Stephen G. Richey was a 21st century NASA astronaut who served as the commander of the exploratory shuttle Charybdis, launched on July 23, 2037.

According to Richey's impromptu and self-penned obituary, the Charybdis arrived at the planet Theta VIII in 2044. Though details were unclear even to the colonel, through an encounter with an alien force the shuttle was destroyed and the rest of the crew was killed. This unknown entity— who Richey referred to as his "benefactors"— apparently did not intend this fatal outcome, or otherwise came to regret it.

As a result, the "benefactors" created an artificial environment modeled on the novel Hotel Royale, written by Todd Matthews. The book, apparently in the possession of one of the colonel's crew, was not a story Richey held in high regard, describing it as "badly written." Nonetheless, the alien force seemed to believe this book was a genuine reflection of human culture, and that the environment would prove sufficient to sustain Richey.

Whether the "benefactors" abandoned Richey or were otherwise unable to communicate with him is unknown, but he had no further contact with anyone outside the eponymous hotel. He spent the next years interacting with the "characters" of the book until penning an entry in his diary explaining the circumstances that had led him to the Royale. He died shortly thereafter, "welcoming death," in 2082, having spent nearly four decades living in Room 727.

His partially decomposed remains were discovered by Commander William T. Riker, Lieutenant Commander Data, and Lieutenant Worf of the USS Enterprise-D in 2365. Data further found that due to the sterile environment of the hotel, Richey's body did not undergo advanced decomposition in the years since his death. They also discovered his diary, and in reading it were the first to learn of the fate of the Charybdis, her crew and her commander. (TNG: "The Royale")

Final words

• "I write this in the hope that it will someday be read by Human eyes. I can only surmise at this point, but apparently our exploratory shuttle was contaminated by an alien life form which infected and killed all personnel except myself. I awakened to find myself here in the Royale Hotel precisely described in the novel I found in my room. And for the last 38 years, I have survived here. I have come to understand that the alien contaminators created this place for me out of some sense of guilt, presuming that the novel we had on board the shuttle about the Hotel Royale was in fact a guide to our preferred lifestyle and social habits. Obviously, they thought this was the world from which I came. I hold no malice toward my benefactors; they could not possibly know the hell they have put me through, for it was such a badly written book, filled with endless cliché and shallow characters. I shall welcome death when it comes."

External link

• Stephen G. Richey at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works