Hi Rick,
you are right you don't have such features as ActiveX or COM-Integration with ExtendScript. If you want to have this, you have to use FDK or FrameScript.
But I found a possibility on how you can get such a connection via external objects. You will find an example here:
C:\Programme\Adobe\Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CC\SDK\Samples\cpp
I think Russ already implemented such a connect in the past. But I think it's a little bit tricky.
Bye Markus