Matthew Matic was born in Birmingham, UK but moved to Hous­ton, Texas in 2026 after his father (a respected research scientist) had been given a post at the Solar System Explo­ration Centre, Glenn Field Space Port, Nevada. The family settled in Houston because Matic's father spent much of his time lecturing at the SSEC Training Academy there.

Matic was encouraged to have an interest in science from an early age and proved a very bright student, graduating from the University of the Universe in 2033 with degrees in astrophysics, robotics and astronomy. He joined the SSEC Space Program and became a navigator on many of the early Zero X exploratory missions to the nearer stars. The co-pilot of his ship was Wilbur Zero and the two soon became good friends. In 2045 Matic accepted a Professorship at the University of the Universe lecturing on hyperdrive technology and astronomy, which allowed him the time for pure research.

His brief was to make the nutomic motor a reality so that it could be installed in the Fireball XL fleet. A number of prototype ships such as Jim Ireland's Explorer 10 and the XL1 Alpha proved the motors and by 2057 Fireball XL5 and her sister ships were upgraded. Matic did not want to stay Earthbound with the possibilities of new planets to explore and alien technologies to analyse so he requested active service aboard one of the XL ships.

He was chosen by Steve Zodiac (who couldn't believe his luck) and became XL5's navigator and engineer reaching the honorary rank of colonel by 2062. Matic earned the Astral Peace Prize in 2063 for his outstanding contributions to space exploration.