Object
Pair of Small Books: The Royale Paperback and Richey's Diary
A small, palm-sized diary / paperback journal (cloth or soft paperback cover in different descriptions) with a worn, scuffed cover, thin yellowing/cream pages, dense cramped handwritten entries and occasional ink smears and margin notes. Characters handle it reverently and urgently: Worf produces it among small books, Data scans its pages to extract narrative patterns, and Riker reads passages aloud that provide first‑person testimony about the shuttle contamination and the Royale's backstory. Functions narratively as the key expository artifact that reframes the Royale as authored pulp and supplies the rules the away team uses to escape.
2 appearances
Purpose
The paperback functions as a source of pulp fiction — entertainment and narrative text — while the diary records Richey’s personal observations and events; together they serve as tangible textual artifacts for inspection and forensic analysis.
Significance
Functions as the pivotal expository clue that reframes the investigation: the diary's anguished confession reveals thirty-eight years of involuntary exile and that an alien recreated a pulp hotel as a prison. Its testimony converts bafflement into strategy, making escape a problem of story logic rather than brute force.
Appearances in the Narrative
When this object appears and how it's used