system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Trek] Maps of the milky way galaxy show the various territories claimed by different groups and empires, like the Federation and Klingons. Since these areas are truly 3-dimensional, does each territory stretch to the "top" and "bottom" of the galaxy as well as horizontally?
gpt
Yes, more or less.  Though it bears mentioning that the galaxy is a relatively flat structure, particularly out toward the edges, so the 'top' or 'bottom' isn't all that far away.  It's why we get away with using 2-D maps for the large scale most of the time.