10 Huge Revelations From Star Trek: Khan

In both Space Seed and The Wrath Of Khan, the 'fearless leader' boasts that the men and women who follow him had sworn to live and die under his command centuries earlier. Their loyalty seems absolute, endless, and without question. For Chekov and Terrell, they discovered this quickly, while the crew of the Enterprise found similar responses.

However, while on Ceti Alpha V, Khan quickly found his authority being challenged. First was an augment named Hugo, caught stirring some of the followers into questioning Khan's authority. He wondered aloud how they could have twice found themselves exiled - once from Earth, then later from the Enterprise. For this, he blamed Khan's lack of leadership.

Hugo was quickly silenced, banished by Khan, but then murdered by Ivan. Ivan himself seemed loyal to a fault - until Khan began to show, in his opinion, weakness. When presented with the opportunity to take dominion over another group of survivors on the planet, Khan instead chose to ally with them - something Ivan found unforgivable. 

Ivan was not alone, though he was in the minority. He openly challenged the man and lost, was banished for five years, then returned, with support, during the attempt to escape off-world. Though Ivan overplayed his hand, he certainly was not alone. Khan may have been telling the truth about that loyalty but it seems that no loyalty is ever absolute.