Colonel Stephen G. Richey was a US Air Force officer of the 21st century. He joined NASA, rising to command the exploration vessel Charybdis, which was launched on the 23rd of July 2037. During the mission the ship became contaminated by an alien life form which killed all personnel except for Richey. This was apparently an accident, and the aliens appeared to feel some sense of guilt over the incident. They created a habitat on the planet Theta VIII for Richey to live in afterwards, basing the surroundings on the plot of a novel he had with him, "The Royale". Unfortunately the aliens were unaware that Richey despised the book, which he considered extremely badly written and filled with an endless parade of cliched shallow characters. He was forced to live in the hotel for 38 years, watching the same series of events unfold day after day until his eventual death in 2082. His remains were discovered by an away team from the Enterprise-D in 2365. [1]
