The Doctor held on to the console and watched the monitor as the TARDIS with Voyager in tow hurtled through the time vortex. He absorbed every detail, every word displayed on the screen, searching for anything that might indicate something wrong. Everything seemed to be in perfect working order and the Time Lord felt quite pleased.

Finally, the time ship's engines wound down to a low hum indicating the end of the trip. The Doctor leaned over and planted a kiss on the glass column. "You are one sexy ship," he said with a grin and quickly glanced at the monitor. He frowned.

According to the Gallifreyan print glowing on the screen, the time ship had landed in a place that should be impossible to land in. A nowhere and no time sort of place.

The Doctor grabbed either side of the monitor and shook it in frustration. "What?" He shrieked in disbelief, but then instantly became thoughtful. "Hang on. Outside of time? That's impossible."

The communicator badge on his lapel chirped and he sighed as he tapped it. "Doctor here."

"This is Janeway. I think you should take a look outside."

"Why? What's outside?"

"Nothing."

"What?" He couldn't believe it as he pushed a couple of buttons on the console.

The monitor flickered while the TARDIS connected to Voyager's cameras, but in a matter of seconds, an image popped on the screen. The view of the starship's hull from the bridge didn't seem out of the ordinary until the Doctor noticed something vitally important was missing. The stars.

His mouth hung open and for once, the Time Lord was speechless.

"Doctor, where are we? Our sensors are not picking up anything," the captain said over the comm.

"Outside of time, apparently," he said in an awestruck voice. "Shouldn't be possible, but that's what the TARDIS says." He took a step back and fell into the bench chair, his mind racing a million miles a second as he tried to figure this out.

"Outside of time?" Janeway asked.

Never had the Doctor experienced anything like this, and he choked back the feeling of panic that threatened to overtake him. He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end in all directions. "Think," he said aloud. "Quit being so thick and think!"

None of the facts lined up, this much the Doctor knew for sure, but he let his mind run over everything that happened since he arrived in this universe once again in an attempt to make sense of it. What was it that he thought right before this jump attempt? Either the laws of this universe are completely different or some higher force was interfering.

"Doctor?" the captain asked with concern in her voice.

When he deduced that the laws of physics in this universe weren't so different from his own at all, that left only one logical conclusion. Slowly, the Doctor rose to his feet with an air of determination. Either what he was about to do next was going to make him look like a complete nutter, or prove him right.

"Alright," the Doctor said in a voice to be heard. "Whoever has been toying around with me and the people on Voyager, I've figured you out. Now show yourself!"

He looked around the console room honestly not knowing what to expect, but thanks to his experience in expecting the unexpected, he didn't jump at the slow mocking clap coming from the other side of the center console.

A tall man with short dark hair wearing a high collared robe of the Time Lord council and a condescending grin stepped around the console. He stopped in front of the Doctor and wore the look of a father gazing proudly on his son. "Well done, Time Lord, well done," he said in a tone that made it clear he was also very amused.

"Striker?" The Doctor could not believe he was seeing the Eternal again after all these centuries.

"Aw, you remember me," the man said looking rather flattered. "Oh, but I'm known as Q now." He casually sat on the bench as if he'd sat there a million times before. "And judging by that utterly perplexed look on your face, you're trying to figure out why I'm here. Speaking of faces, I see you've changed yours."

"A few times," the Doctor said flatly.

"Really?" Q leaned forward and seemed genuinely interested. "How many times have you died, Doctor? Oh, and don't leave out the really juicy part, like how did it feel?"

The Doctor regarded the immortal with disgust. "I don't see how that has anything to do with why you are here or why you've been sabotaging my efforts to help these people home."

"Oh, don't be such a stick in the mud." Q waved a dismissive hand at the Doctor. "I'll get to that soon enough. You know, I really don't know how you Gallifreyans ever wore these hideous clothes." He tugged at the neck line with a frown. "Excuse me while I change into something a bit more comfortable."

Q snapped his fingers and with a white flash of light, he now wore a red Starfleet uniform with the four quips of the captain rank on the collar. "Much better," he said with a smile. "Now, where were we?"

"Q!"

Both the Doctor and Q turned their attention on B'Elanna Torres standing on the doorway of the TARDIS staring at Q with a hard look of contempt.

"Why hello, pretty little Klingon girl," Q said.

B'Elanna didn't answer but instead she retained her scowl and tapped her communicator. "Torres to the Bridge. We have an intruder in Main Engineering. It's Q."

"On my way." Janway did not sound happy at all.

"Oooo, sounds like I'm in big trouble," Q said with a laugh that showed his amusement. "I guess we're not going to get any privacy now, Doctor."

"What do you want, Striker?" the Doctor asked sternly.

"No need to be rude. I said my name is Q now. I'm nicely calling you Doctor even though I honestly don't know what's wrong with your real name. I mean, is-"

"Please, Q. Don't," the Time Lord said through a clenched jaw.

Q held up his hands defensively. "Don't worry, Doctor. Your name is safe with me. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm getting rather impatient waiting for the good captain." He snapped his fingers and Captain Janeway appeared next to the console.

Once the shock of the sudden teleport passed, she marched up to the immortal with a threatening pointing finger. "Q, what the hell are you doing here?"

The Doctor's mouth dropped slightly at the brave conviction Janeway displayed. There she was, staring down one of the most powerful beings in all the universes, and she didn't show a lick of fear. He quietly choked back the rush of emotions he felt toward his beloved human race.

"Katie," Q held out his arms expecting to embrace her, "I've missed you too."

"Don't Katie me, Q." She batted away his arms and took a step back. "Have you been tampering with my ship?"

Q looked offended and rested his fingertips on his chest. "Moi? Why would I do such a thing?"

The stern sideways stare Janeway gave Q would have been enough to make a Hirogen think twice, but it also worked enough to make Q pause a moment.

"Oh, alright," Q said in defeat and let his gaze drop to the floor. "It was me, but I had my reasons." He looked up and gave Janeway a serious look.

The captain put her hand on her hip and pursed her lips in anger. "Tell me why."

Q looked past her and smiled. "It's all his fault."

Janeway looked at the Doctor, who now looked as confused as she was, and then turned back to Q. "Am I going to get an explanation or will I have to play one of your silly games first?"

The immortal slid off the bench and gently took Janeway's hands into his own. "If you want to play games with me, Katie," he gave her a look that was meant to be charming and playful, "all you had to do was say so."

Janeway turned her head in disgust and tried to pull away. "Q," she started to say.

"Let go of her," the Doctor said in a tone of warning and took a step forward.

"Katie and I would like some alone time." Q snapped his fingers and the Doctor vanished in a flash of light.

At that moment, Tuvok and the security team arrived at the TARDIS door, but before they could enter, Q rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. The cables running through the ship's door vanished and doors themselves slammed shut with a loud bang.

Q pulled Janeway close and slipped his hand around the small of her back. "Now," he said smiling seductively that turned into annoyed exasperation. "You too?" He whined and glared at the TARDIS console. With a snap of his fingers, the console and the room went dark as if the power was switched off. Only the soft glow of green back up lights remained. The immortal looked into Janeway's eyes seductively. "Ooo, this is romantic. What game would you like to start with, my sweet?"

"Q, stop this now," the captain said. "I don't want to play any games with you. I just want answers."

"Are you sure I can't interest you in a quiet evening alone with me?" he asked and snapped his fingers. A slow waltz played from nowhere and Q swayed to the music. "You can't possibly be thinking of saying no."

Janeway stiffened her body to stop dancing to the music. "No. Q. No," she said as sternly as she could manage and made her growing frustration as clear as she could possible make it.

With a sigh and a roll of the eyes, Q snapped his fingers and the music ended as abruptly as it started. "As you wish, my dear Katie," he said with another exaggerated sigh.

"Bring the Doctor back." The captain took a step back and crossed her arms.

"Now?" Q looked like a child told to clean his room, but at Janeway's hard expression, he snapped his fingers.

Janeway looked around for the Doctor and frowned when she didn't see him. She was about to chastise Q when she noticed that the Time Lord was indeed back in the console room, but not where he, or anyone, should be.

In the space between the upper and lower glass tubes inside the glass column in the console, the Doctor was curled up in a tight crouch. He pressed the palms of his hands against the glass to steady himself as he carefully balanced on the tops of the fragile glass tubes. "Let me out of here!" He shouted in raw anger.

Q couldn't contain his laughter anymore and he double over in a fit as he held his sides.

"Q!" Janeway shouted as she ran up to the console and stared up at the trapped Doctor in near panic. "Get him out of there this instant!"

The immortal stood up straight at the harsh voiced demand, but he still chuckled at the sight of the Doctor in the small space. He snapped his fingers. The Doctor vanished from the column and reappeared, standing next to the console.

"Q!" The Doctor was completely outraged. "End this right now and either explain yourself or get the hell out of my ship!"

Janeway raised her eyebrows and glance at the Time Lord in approval. "Well," she said with a smile. "I couldn't have said that better myself." She turned to Q and looked at him expectantly.

Q's wide smile fell and his expression became frighteningly serious. "Very well," he said in a dark tone and snapped his fingers.

A/N: And this is the start of the third and final section. Thank you all for your patience. You rock!