When a desperate world learned on September 14th, 2048, that Gerald Timmins, a mild mannered microbiologist and infectious diseases specialist had successfully created a treatment for the then new pandemic rapidly sweeping the globe, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement to working class parents Simon and Gwen Timmins (née Wilkes), humble in manner, Timmins had all the makings of a twenty first-century icon--a knight in a white coat. In the wake of
his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; but he like so many others would be forever marked by the disease he fought to a stalemate.
In the first complete biography of Gerald Timmins, biographer Annabelle Lestari unravels Timmin's story to reveal a brilliant scientist, a terrible student, a compulsively unassuming genius and a vulnerable man on the edge of madness. Despite his incredible success in developing the temporovirus vaccine, Timmins considered himself a failure, expressing in his few public interviews a desire to have done more, and calling TAP (Temporally Acquired Progeria) the beast that would consume us all.
Even before success catapulted him into the limelight, Timmins was an inscrutable man, underestimated by many of his peers. Timmins early career in academia was marked by repeated failures and near misses, dropping out or being expelled for non attendance from three major universities due to bouts of crippling anxiety and schizotypal delusions. Driven by an intense desire to aid mankind, Timmins eventually received two doctorates through distance learning programs before founding a lab supplychain company with a fellow Harvard dropout.
Despite earning the world’s adoration, Dr. Timmins was also the polarizing target of immediate controversy and conspiracy. Two days after the event, detailing the harrowing tale of his escape from AA flight 307 (The Plague Plane of NY) to an abandoned lab, and the development of his life saving gene therapy, Gerald has maintained that divine intervention was guiding him every step of the way. In fact, Gerald described being whisked away to the lab, witnessing the awakening of not one but five mysterious unknown scions, playing 20 questions with the God of the underworld, being fed pizza and a caprese salad of the Gods, and being anointed with sacred milk before his memory was erased and his superhuman friends disappeared. Dr. Timmins claimed to have seen all of this on the security cameras of the lab, but he has never presented these videos, claiming they were taken by a secret mafia.
Less than one week later Dr. Timmins explained that the stress of the events leading up to the development of the treatment had caused a relapse resulting in a psychotic episode, and while he still credits the gods with his success, he has described the rest as obvious delusions brought on by acute stress.
What is known is that Dr. Timmins was found collapsed in his impromptu laboratory with instructions written out for whoever found his body and his research. He was injected on site with his experimental treatment, and was successfully revived though having suffered major organ damage and a hemorrhagic stroke.
Delusional madman, or Divine Messenger of the Gods, one thing is for certain, Gerald Timmins is a legend.
Though Dr. Timmins has since gone into seclusion, his whereabouts unknown, this biography is based on hundreds of personal interviews and unprecedented access to Timmins sealed archives, Lestari’s biography offers the most complete picture of this complicated figure. A vivid and intimate portrait, this will become the standard work on the remarkable life of Gerald Timmins.
As the disease still reshapes our world in its image, Dr. Timmins final public statement was that he sees himself as only a cog in the machine. “I couldn’t beat the disease, not by myself, but someone once bought me some time, and well, I’ve learned that time is the most precious thing we have, so me? I’m just buying time.”
“I couldn’t beat the disease, not by myself, but someone once bought me some time, and well, I’ve learned that time is the most precious thing we have, so me? I’m just buying time.”