Colleen Holt was at the wheel, her son sat on one of the back seats of the car. He was a tall, skinny lad in his late teens with overgrown chestnut hair and large round glasses, wearing a mint green jumper.

"Are you OK, Matt?" she asked, her eye on the road.

The young adult muttered something unintelligible. Parts of his mouth were stuffed with gauze from where he'd just had his wisdom teeth removed.

"We'll be home shortly," she said.

Matt said something that sounded vaguely like, "Can I have my teeth back?"

Colleen laughed. The pain medicine wasn't going to wear off for a while. "I don't think that's possible…"

When they arrived back home, Matt's father Sam was there to greet him at the door, along with his little sister Katie, a tomboy in her early teens with a bushy brown ponytail, wearing a green tunic dress and black leggings.

"So, you're all ready to go into space now?" said Sam, putting a hand on his son's shoulder. He raised an eyebrow teasingly.

"Space now?" said Matt through a mouthful of cotton, "But we haven't got a rocket! We can't go to space without a rocket."

Katie started giggling.

Sam and Colleen needed to complete some paperwork for the Galaxy Garrison regarding Sam and Matt's upcoming mission. They left their intoxicated son with Katie, not thinking anything of it, until Sam ran through the lounge to get something and noticed Matt was holding his mobile, his rather amused sister sat beside him.

"What are you doing?" he asked them.

Matt got through to someone on the other end. "Hello…this is Matthew Holt…" The gauze was still slurring his speech, his parents having asked him not to remove it. "And I'm going into space. WOO!" He gently punched the air.

"Katie, who is he calling?" Sam asked his daughter.

"I don't know!" Katie collapsed into a fit of giggles.

"And I'm going to get all the hot alien babes! WOO!" continued Matt.

Sam had horrific visions of Commander Iverson or Admiral Sanda's reaction to hearing the last sentence. He snatched the phone off his son.

"Gimme back the phone!" whined Matt.

"I'm real sorry about what my son just said…" apologised Sam, "He's just had his wisdom teeth out and…oh." The person on the other end was clearly speaking to him. "I was the same too, I must admit." He chuckled.

"I want the hot alien babes!" Matt went on, "You know…the green ones with the bikinis…in Star Trek…beam me up Scotty!"

Katie literally fell off her seat with laughter.

"I see…" Sam was listening, "Thank you for your time." He ended the call.

Katie was now picking herself off the floor. "Who was that, Dad?"

"That was Shiro, thank heavens," explained Sam, "He told me about when he had his wisdom teeth removed. It's hard to imagine a level-headed guy like him as drugged up as your brother here!" He chuckled again.

"Oh man, I forgot he must have had his out too…" Katie proudly put her hands on her hips. "It will probably be me next!"

"Yeah, when you go to space!" piped up Matt.

Maybe she will be, thought Sam, But hopefully not for a very long time…