War Hero

Dorothy Gale, upon opening the door to the mission briefing room, found an officer dressed in red, white, and blue, staring blankly into thin air.

"Captain Fleming!" Dorothy said. "There you are! We've all finished making preparations and are ready to move into the Emerald City once you give the order."

With that, the soldier looked up, startled. "Oh, Dorothy. Come on in."

She obliged, gently closing the door behind her and marching up to the standing desk. "You look tired, Henry. I'd ask if everything is all right, but I mean, I guess it's kind of obvious you've got a lot on your mind."

Henry sighed. "You can say that again." He paused. "Sorry, I just realized no one actually has welcomed you onto our ship yet. Well, welcome aboard the Liberty, the steam-powered airship that President Lincoln commissioned."

Dorothy nodded happily. "I know. I've been his ambassador to Oz for a year now. But the last few months, the alien invasion caught both Oz and the United States in turmoil, so I haven't had the chance to check back in. And now that we really need his help… he's in a coma."

"Don't worry, Dorothy," Henry said. "The rest of us Agents of S.T.E.A.M. will do our best to save Oz."

"Oh, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful to the rest of you—I'm very happy that you've agreed to help save our land. In fact, I also came here because I wanted to check up on you. I know you had a rough time in the Civil War, and now you're suddenly forced into another wartime leadership role, right before I arrived. You seemed a little upset after you came here after we landed."

At that, Henry looked away pensively. "I mean, I'm not lying when I say I'm happy to help. I am glad to able to help you and anyone else. It's just that I wish I could help in some way that wasn't war, risking life and limb of not just me but this entire strike team. There's a reason why I ended up as Head of Security in the American Embassy in London, instead of a more active military role."

"Henry…" Dorothy said. "There's something more, isn't there? You have a sort of look in your eyes."

Henry raised an eyebrow. "You really know how to read people, huh?" He sighed. "It's not something I like to talk about, but, well, people misjudge me. They think I'm a great war hero or something, looking up to my unwavering courage and infallible strength. I'm really not a hero, though. Not at all."

"Really?" Dorothy asked. "I mean, we all feel that way sometimes - I'm just a girl from Kansas who happened to come upon the Land of Oz due to a freak accident with a tornado. Even now, when I'm considered to be full ambassador between the two worlds, I still feel like just a little girl."

"At least you actually are the ambassador that people claim you to be. But for me, people look up to me as a hero for what I did in the Battle of Chancellorsville. But you know what I actually did in that battle? I ran away. As fast and as far as I could, the moment there was enough chaos to mask my flight. There is literally not a less courageous or heroic thing I could have done than that."

Dorothy frowned in surprise. "Really? Was it all just made up, the story that I heard about how you bravely charged the enemy lines and captured their flag?"

Henry paused. "I mean, that much is factually correct, though I suspect the details have been exaggerated. After I ran off, I felt guilty and returned to the battlefield. And then lied to the others about where I had been so as not to get in trouble. And then, finally, while everyone else was tired and wounded from the battle, I went raging into enemy lines like a madman. I needed to prove to the others that I was brave so that no one would suspect me of desertion—or so I told myself at the time. Looking back, I think it was that I needed to prove to myself that I wasn't a complete and utter coward. I didn't tell anyone about this until years after the war, and by that time stories of my courage were so widespread that no one believed that I was not a great war hero, but a mere frightened boy trying—and honestly, failing—to be a man."

"Oh, Henry!" Dorothy started to say before he interrupted her.

"And not only did I really fail to prove myself a man, I also had to experience so much violence, far more than enough for a single lifetime. And yet, here I find myself again, facing so much death and destruction wrought upon us by these extraterrestrial beings." He waved his hand towards a steam-powered monitor, currently showing the ruins of a city somewhere, charred and half-covered in ice.

Dorothy gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth. "I… That poor city! I haven't seen anything like this first-hand, yet. The Emerald City, as you saw outside, has been left almost completely intact, though the citizens have all been evacuated, or are trapped in the castle." She looked down. "Well, the survivors, anyway."

Henry placed a hand on the young girl's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Dorothy. Wars kill people - and I don't just mean their corporeal bodies. It can kill the spirits of the survivors, too." He sighed. "I guess, though, that's the main reason why I'll accept this position at the frontline of this war—aside from the obvious fact that we're saving civilian lives. It's hard for me, but it'd be so much harder for you, or someone even less experienced with the horrors of war. If I were not here, someone else would have to fill my place. So if I can save others from going through this trauma, it's still worth it."

Dorothy managed a weak smile. "And you say you're not worthy of being called heroic. Captain Fleming, on behalf of all the citizens you've helped out—both directly and indirectly—I thank you sincerely for your service."

Henry returned the smile. "I suppose I'll have to accept your thanks. And I really have to thank you, as well, for spending a few minutes to talk to me. It really does help to have someone to discuss this all with." He took a deep breath and stepped towards the door. "You said that everyone's ready to take back the Emerald City? Well, Dorothy, let's go save Oz!"

Author's Note: Today is Memorial Day in the United States, when we are to remember those who have served in the armed forces. I honestly have no idea how accurate this fic is in terms of the psychology and outlook on life that veterans have. If there is anything markedly wrong—or right, for that matter—please let me know. Out of respect for those who have had serious encounters with war, I would like not to get anything severely wrong.

Regarding the more fanfiction-y side of things, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is a terribly underrated game. It's not perfect, but it should have gotten so much more attention than it actually did. The gameplay is quite cool, and in particular, I really love that they used exclusively public-domain characters from American stories and folklore for the main team. It would have led people to be more aware of American culture and literary tradition, though with the game's lack of success, it doesn't seem that that'll actually happen. With such a diverse cast of characters and a pretty strong group dynamic going on, there's a dishearteningly small amount of fanfiction about them.

Henry Fleming is from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Henry, in stark contrast to his Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. personality, is a naïve youth who really wants to prove his courage in a battle because of the stories he's heard about war. This was actually the main motivation behind this fic—I wanted to go into why Henry's become the more serious, withdrawn character that he is in S.T.E.A.M. Most of what he describes in this fic are pretty much straight from the book (or at least the Sparknotes version of it—the original text is quite dense).

Dorothy Gale is most famously from The Wizard of Oz, but that's just the first of a whole series of stories that take place in Oz. I haven't read them, but from what I can tell, she really does go back and forth between Oz and the real world quite a few times, and as such making her a full-out ambassador in this fic was not much of a stretch.

Published May 30, 2016