Southern Cross's characters are varied and distinct but at times seem painted superficially. Police Chief Judy Hammer, whose husband has recently died and who is purposefully breaking her ties with the past, is driven by a vision of proper police organization, but her closest companion is a bugeyed Boston Terrier named Popeye (she talks to him about all her difficulties). Her deputy chief Virginia West is irritable, unhappy, and unbearably lonely; she has had an affair with a younger officer and feels inadequate, old, and unattractive. She expects infidelity so she finds it (though in fact it is nonexistent). She pushes Andy Brazil away when in reality she wants to hold him close. She too is dominated by a pet, a remarkably intelligent Abyssinian cat named Niles, who seems to intuitively make the computer work in his master's best interest. The private lives of both women repeatedly interfere...