Remains of Colonel Stephen G. Richey (2365)
Colonel Stephen G. Richey was a 21st century United States Air Force officer who served as the commanding officer of the explorer ship Charybdis, launched on 23 July, 2037.
Richey arrived at the planet Theta VIII in 2044, where an artificial environment, based on the novel Hotel Royale, was created for him by an unknown alien force. He lived out the rest of his life in the Hotel, where he eventually died in 2082.
His remains were discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise-D in 2365. Commander William Riker also discovered his diary which contained a single entry. (TNG: "The Royale")
- "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."