Oh, that's discouraging. :(
I don't do multiplayer. With my life right now, I have to pause or outright quit the game far too frequently, so it would be way too frustrating.
Sounds like SoT isn't really ideal for you then anyway. It's not greatly conductive to short sessions. This Seasons progression is aimed at solving that to a degree but a session of the game is very much strapping in for a 'session', not loading up and having fifteen minutes of fun at a time. Nothing on your ship (in terms of supplies, loot, current missions etc) saves between sessions. You're starting with a fresh ship every time you load up. It's more comparible to a game of Dota 2 or something (in terms of starting a fresh game each time, long session with others) than playing some single player game that you can just stick in rest mode.