Energy unit

Nestene energy units were hollow, plastic meteorites utilised by the Consciousness to travel through space by dividing portions of itself. Each energy unit was a translucent polyhedron, 8.5 inches in diameter with a volume of 3,000 cubic centimeters. Ranging from pink to blue in color, they moved through space in formation and landed on worlds through a thin funnel of superheated air about twenty miles in diameter; the first wave was composed of a spearhead of five or six units, followed by another fifty or so six months later. Energy units contained Nestene intelligence, which would be collected by Autons. If they were difficult to locate, they could increase their pulsation signals as the units were alive since they were part of the Consciousness. One energy unit was the Swarm Leader, which was vital to creating a Nestene creature: once all units were collected, their contained intelligences were deposited into an environment tank to allow them to manufacture a body out of plastic which would serve as the central brain of the Autons. (TV: Spearhead from Space)

Independently, an energy unit could be connected directly to an Auton to animate it. (TV: Terror of the Autons)