My takes:
If you were to eject someone / something from the ship during jump what would happen to it?
I foresaw a problem of PCs and others too easily disposing of problems by simple shoving them out the airlock while in jumpspace. So I ruled that yes you can, and it will be utterly destroyed* when it contacts/crosses the boundary BUT the manner of that destruction is akin to a matter/antimatter annihilation. In other words there will be a large explosion in very close proximity of the hull. The size being dependent on how much stuff makes contact. The whole "grey shifting pattern" is a result of microscopic sublimation and trace gases migrating from the hull throughout jump and are not a concern. A bigger mass and resulting explosion though will at the very least risk hull damage to the jump grid in the location, which can cause a cascade of more material (your ship) contacting the boundary, resulting in more explosions, etc. It will very probably induce a misjump. And may quite likely result in the total destruction of the ship.
* so far as anyone knows, there is a possibility it may exist in the jumpspace dimension but it's unlikely it would be recognizable or in any fashion viable due to the alien physics
My take above is largely from canon game background, some concerning experiments with launching ships from other ships while in jump. They all ended badly for the launched ships, and usually for the launching ship as well. Experiments were halted.
Nothing emerges from jump at some point along the route. This would allow too many twists to the whole nature and point of jump being handled as it is. You are cut off for 1 week. Nothing jumps faster than 1 week. If you allow emergence in mid-jump you set up the possibility of faster comms and jumps. Fine for an ATU, not for the OTU.
It will emerge with the ship, if it hasn't drifted into contact with the boundary.
If it gets stuck in jump space it's a moot point.
On the issue of hulls, that's why I don't go in for the whole "jump bubble" nonsense. If your fuel is to form a uniform bubble around the hull then it needs to be based on AREA not VOLUME. As you note a dispersed or open frame hull is going to have a lot more AREA for the same VOLUME compared to a sphere hull.
Also note that a hull costs the same regardless of it being small (under 100tons) or large, a starship or a spaceship. So all hulls are basically the same. This is one reason* why, even though I use it, I dislike the idea of a jump grid in the hull (my own take is more of a current/field effect based on hull contact of like materials). So it doesn't matter if you jump with a small craft attached (properly) or not. As long as it's within the ship's designed hull total for jump and the jump drive is in working order you're good.
* another being that hull damage does not equate to jump drive damage and vice versa
An example seems in order. The Gazelle is a good one. Properly designed it should begin as a 400ton hull. You pay for 400tons of hull, including bridge for 400tons. Then you decide 100tons of that is going to be drop tanks (and when carried they are part of the jump, when dropped you recalculate your hull as 300tons for performance). Next you want an externally carried 20ton Gig. No problem, stick it on and it's good. Jump without it and you're fine. In the end your actual "hull" is just 280tons but it has proper attachments for 120tons more (in the form of 2x50tons and 1x20tons of specific dimensions). By the way, the above is also how I explain the Gazelle having 4 hardpoints, legally, because it is actually a 400ton hull.
As a contrary example say you have a pair of 200ton J2 Far-Traders docked and one tries to make a J1 for both (400tons total). While the math works, the effect won't. The ships aren't designed to do that. For one thing neither has a bridge good for more than 200tons of control. For another there are no proper jump connections between the two. What happens? Well the ship attempting the jump will probably misjump. The ship left behind is going to take some serious damage and could be destroyed. I'd impose the same misjump level of damage but keep it in normal space. That is, if the misjumping ship got a "destroyed" result, then so would the one left behind. If the misjumping ship simply "misjumped" then I'd impose a repair requirement on the one left behind of equal time (1d6 weeks) and have it totally disabled until repaired.
That's this old trader's take on it
