Are you thinking about making a particle system, or using the in-built ones for DB(P)?
To get the particles to follow, just do something simple like this.
x1#=object position x(Your spaceship objnum here)
y1#=object position y(Your spaceship objnum here)
z1#=object position z(Your spaceship objnum here)
Then, you can position the particles to move as your spaceship does.
position particles particlenum,x1#,y1#,z1#
You might need to tweak the positioning numbers a little(z1#-1 or something), so that they follow behing the way you want.
A book? I hate book. Book is stupid.