Reportedly, Orci did try to inject some legitimate science into Trek XI but was overruled by Abrams in favor of "being cool" instead.
IIRC, David Mack has said that Collateral Damage was written with a mindset that the Picard series wouldn't be happening and this would be just another adventure in the Litverse continuity, since when he and Dayton Ward were plotting the story arc to this point it was at a time when plot details about Picard weren't known and their instructions from Pocket were to just proceed as they normally would have. The plan Mack has spoken of didn't come about until after he and Ward became aware of the show's plot, and it's still far too early to see how that plan will manifest itself in any of the novels, even in Last Best Hope.
