In 2037 NASA launched the Charybdis under Colonel Stephen Richey, an early interstellar mission whose fate remained a mystery for more than three centuries.
The Charybdis left Earth under the command of Colonel Stephen Richey and then disappeared. Unknown aliens encountered the ship, accidentally killed most of its crew, and carried Richey far across the galaxy. Trying to give him a comfortable home, they built a world based on a novel he had brought, The Hotel Royale, where he lived out his life.
In 2365 the Enterprise-D found wreckage of the Charybdis orbiting a distant planet. Riker, Worf and Data became trapped in the recreated hotel, learned Richey's fate from his diary, and escaped by playing out the novel's plot.