Passengers to Sentience - Peter Salisbury's Passengers Science Fiction, #1

Data detective Ben thinks he's succeeded in his latest drugs bust. Now he needs to find some different answers: how did humans use cloning to populate other planets across the Milky Way; how can we communicate almost instantaneously between one star system and the next?

After much research and watching old movies, he also discovers that FTL drives never quite worked, suspended animation was too much like being dead, hyperspace was never found, and matter transporters still make a mess.

Ben takes a holiday, exchanging mind and body with Lori, the partner of his dreams and is guaranteed that it's a return ticket. Instead he finds himself being used as slave labour on a hostile desert planet where life is cheap and he's expendable. To make matters worse, he's lost all memory of how he got there and of who he really is.

The only person who can change him from victim to victor is Ben himself. Unfortunately, he does not know this, until an accident gives him his mind back. Follow the exploits of Ben and Lori as they fight to keep their knowledge secret. Can they succeed in their battle to escape without alerting their dangerous fellow crew members? And even if they do get away, can they reach home without finding even more trouble? Doubtful!